GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN INDONESIA (UNICEF)

FACT: The Governm ent of Indonesia since its independence in 1945 has s teadily expanded its education sys tem and compuls ory 9 years of basic education was declared a national policy in 1994.
FACT: Most children, both boys and girls , enroll in prim ary school, with the net enrolm ent ratio (NER) reaching 93 per cent in 2002, with no s ignificant gender gap.
FACT: At the junior s econdary school level, the NER drops to 61.6 per cent with a s lightly higher ratio for girls (62.4 per cent) than boys (60.9 percent).
FACT: More children from urban areas (71.9 per cent) go to junior high com pared to rural areas (54.1 per cent).
FACT: Enrollment differs significantly among incom e groups. The poores t 20 percent of the population has a much lower NER of 49.9 per cent compared to 72.2 percent in the richest 20 per cent.
FACT: Data from the Minis try of Education s hows s ignificant gender gaps in s chool dropout rates , both at primary and junior secondary levels . Girls are more likely to drop out of s chool than boys . In primary s chool, out of every 10 children who drop out, 6 are girls and 4 are boys . It’s the s ame in junior s econdary s chool. The gender gap slightly widens at the s enior s econdary school to 7 girls dropping out for every 3 boys (Minis try of National Education, 2002).
FACT: Roughly 1.8 m illion children of prim ary s chool age 7-12 years , and 4.8 million age 13-15 years, remain outside s chools (National Socio-Econom ic Survey, 2002).
FACT: Data on s chool trans ition rates show that boys and girls are equally likely to proceed from primary s chool to junior secondary s chool. Trans ition rate from prim ary to junior secondary education for boys (83 per cent) is slightly higher-although not s ignificantly- than that of girls (81 per cent). The gender gap in trans ition rates widen a little –although still ins ignificantly- at the next higher level of s chooling from junior s econdary to s enior s econdary education levels (73 per cent for boys compared to 69 per cent for girls ).
FACT: Literacy has rem ained high over the pas t decade for the 15-24 year age group: 96.6 percent in 1992 and 98.7 in 2002. There is no significant literacy gender gap as indicated by a gender parity index of 97.9 per cent in 1992 and 99.8 per cent in 2002.
FACT: 85% of Indonesian girls aged 15-19 have at leas t one m ajor mis conception about HIV/AIDS or have never heard of AIDS.

THE BARRIERS
While it is apparent that access to education becom es increas ingly m ore lim ited as children go to higher levels of education, Indones ia has achieved an overall good progress towards gender parity in net enrolm ent ratio at prim ary and junior secondary levels . Does this mean that Indones ia does not have serious gender problems in education? Far from it, gender iss ues that are less obvious , more complex and intractable -perhaps harder to address with quick fixes – continue to plague Indones ia. These larger issues becom e barriers to achieving gender equality in education and they include:
Gender biased textbooks that reinforce the gender s tereotypes continue to be widely used in s chools . Studies that analyzed contents of prim ary school textbooks show that there are more illustrations s howing males /boys than fem ales /girls. Als o illus trations of males /boys s how more divers ity and creativity in roles than those of fem ales /girls . In addition, more prominent m en’s names are cited than prominent wom en.
Gender stereotyping s till prevails as shown in the selection of specialization at vocational schools and univers ities , which in dicates a form of “voluntary dis crim ination” practiced by both females and males . Social s ciences are generally dominated by female s tudents and technical s ciences by m ale students .
National policies exist promoting gender equality in education, but there are inadequate programmes to directly address inequalities in education by increasing access and participation of disadvantaged children, including poor and marginalized girls .
Inadequate gender awareness and expertise persist despite gender mainstreaming mandate-this is in part a result of a deeper-rooted problem of inadequate contextualization of gender concepts in a way that m akes sens e within exis ting Indones ian s ocio-cultural and religious beliefs and traditions .
Early marriage is one of the key iss ues identified in s pecific areas of Indonesia (Indram ayu, Wes t Java for e xample) as affecting girls access to and participation in education.
Inadequate reliable sex-disaggregated data at national and s ub-national levels hampers the education s ector’s ability to as s ess progress beyond access and participation. Sex- dis aggregated data are used m ainly for reporting on global comm itm ents and rarely for policy form ulation and project preparation.

males /boys s how more divers ity and creativity in roles than those of fem ales /girls . In addition, more prominent m en’s names are cited than prominent wom en. Gender stereotyping s till prevails as shown in the selection of specialization at vocational s chools and univers ities , which in dicates a form of “voluntary dis crim ination” practiced by both females and males . Social s ciences are generally dominated by female s tudents and technical s ciences by m ale students .
National policies exist promoting gender equality in education, but there are inadequate programmes to directly address inequalities in education by increasing access and participation of disadvantaged children, including poor and marginalized girls .
Inadequate gender awareness and expertise persist despite gender mainstreaming mandate-this is in part a result of a deeper-rooted problem of inadequate contextualization of gender concepts in a way that m akes sens e within exis ting Indones ian s ocio-cultural and religious beliefs and traditions .
Early marriage is one of the key iss ues identified in s pecific areas of Indonesia (Indram ayu, Wes t Java for e xample) as affecting girls access to and participation in education.
Inadequate reliable sex-disaggregated data at national and s ub-national levels hampers the education s ector’s ability to as s ess progress beyond access and participation. Sex- dis aggregated data are used m ainly for reporting on global comm itm ents and rarely for policy form ulation and project preparation.
mplementation strategies for the above general and gender s pecific policies include:

• Creating a national m ovement for com pletion of basic education, involving communities, especially parents and comm unity leaders , NGOs , the private and indus trial s ectors .
• Enhancing and s trengthening exis ting ess ential programm es for increas ing s chool enrolment, while re-ass essing programme activities that are less ess ential; and mobilising resources for m aintaining and improving the Bas ic Education Programme.
• Providing more opportunities for private s chools and community-based educational institutions to participate more in basic education provision.
• Using alternative education approaches and programm es to reach previous ly unreached poor and remote comm unities and im prove equity in access to basic education.
• Providing dis trict and city governm ents with full authority and res ponsibility for local implementation of the Compuls ory Basic Education Programme, so that they can take into account region-specific potentials and challenges , with s upport from the central and province governments .
• Providing equal access to quality education, specifically primary education, for boys and girls , through formal and non-formal channels .
• Providing access to equivalency education for the adult population that cannot undertake form al education.
• Providing access to literacy education services , specifically for the fem ale population. Enhancing coordination, inform ation, and education in the mains tream ing of gender-s ensitive education.
• Developing educational ins titutions for providing gender-s ens itive education at central and provincial levels .