Budget for education Child Poverty and Disparities

125 33.8 Per cent 3-6 Years ECE 3-6 Years ECE 7-12 Years 7-12 Years 13-15 Years 13-15 Years 16-17 Years 16-17 Years Poorest Q1 Richest Q5 2003 2009 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figure 4.4: Progress of school enrolment rates among girls and boys, in urban and rural areas, and from the poorest and richest household quintiles, 2003 and 2009 Source:฀Estimated฀using฀data฀from฀the฀2003฀and฀2009฀SUSENAS฀Panel 3-6 Years ECE 3-6 Years ECE 7-12 Years 7-12 Years 13-15 Years 13-15 Years 16-17 Years 16-17 Years Per cent Per cent 23.0 96.0 77.9 53.5 49.3 96.7 85.2 66.0 24.6 96.6 80.2 59.7 50.8 97.4 87.9 68.5 Boys Girls 2003 2009 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 3-6 Years ECE 3-6 Years ECE 7-12 Years 7-12 Years 13-15 Years 13-15 Years 16-17 Years 16-17 Years Urban Rural 2003 2009 17.2 98.3 95.0 89.8 72.3 73.2 42.4 53.2 47.4 98.0 96.3 90.8 82.9 94.1 75.0 41.9 59.4 83.7 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 44.4 99.2 61.2 93.2 31.9 81.2 46.1 59.1 94.7 98.5 74.5 15.0 93.7 126 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 Age economic work only_male economic work and school_male exit school_male enroll school_male economic work only_female economic work and school_female exit school_female enroll school_female Percentage Figure 4.5: Participation in school and work of the population under the age of 30 years, 2009 Source:฀Estimated฀using฀data฀from฀the฀2009฀SUSENAS฀Panel since most of the major government subsidy schemes, particularly BOS and the scholarship programme, only contribute to educational costs during the compulsory nine years of basic education primary and junior secondary school. In addition, at the senior secondary school level, the school entry and tuition fees are much more expensive, and the school facilities are often further away, pushing up the costs of transport see Table 4.7. More than 18 per cent of female students in urban areas admitted that the reason for discontinuation was because they had to find work after graduation from junior secondary school, as did 13.6 per cent of male students. In rural areas, the situation was slightly different. While the proportion of girls graduating from junior secondary school who had to work to earn an income was lower than boys, far more of the girls had to do household chores or get married. Working immediately after graduating from junior secondary school is a risky choice. A study by the World Bank 2010 found that only 60 per cent of young senior secondary school graduates could secure paid employment, and there was a decreasing trend with age, meaning that only 30 per cent of junior secondary school graduates managed to obtain paid employment. In the long run, higher education meant higher salaries which arguably meant greater prosperity. There were similar findings from the qualitative field research, which provided vignettes illustrating the situation experienced by the poor in urban North Jakarta and rural East Sumba see also Box 4.1. In North Jakarta, it was observed that the most common time for children to drop out or discontinue schooling was either just before or just after junior secondary school. In terms of gender disparity, female students were better off at the time the study was conducted than they were five years ago. Five years ago, more female than male students dropped out before senior secondary school. The main reason was that female students were perceived to have a better chance of obtaining work, whereas male students were kept in school because they would become the head of their own families in the future. At the time of the study, this inequality had somewhat diminished, and the problem of discontinuing school affected girls and boys approximately equally. 1 .9 .8 .7 .6 .5 .4 .3 .2 .1