The “9 Years Compulsory Education Promotion” program is designed by the government to answer today’s global needs and challenges. According to National Education Constitution No. 2/1989, the government is required to enhance the people’s standard of living through an obligation for citizens ranging from 7-12 years old and 12-15 years old to complete 6 years of elementary education and another 3 years of junior high school. It is deemed irrelevant for children allover Indonesia today to not complete a 9 years-minimum-education and living in illiteracy.
However, Indonesia’s archipelagic state made education standardization all over the country challenging. Moreover, the inequality of education in Indonesia is a structural problem, whereas in one hand education infrastructures and human resources to facilitate the process are hard to distribute. In the other hand, different cultural understandings on the importance of formal education and economic inequality throughout the nation also stands as an obstacle to education distribution.
Until today, UNICEF’s research has found about 2.5 million children in Indonesia are unable to access education. 600.000 children are unable to study at elementary level, and 1.9 million other doesn’t have access to junior high school. These numbers are also approved by the National Statistical Bureau (BPS). Several research conducted by BPS has founded that on a provincial and regency level, children coming from poor families are unable to start an elementary level education, moreover continuing their previous education to junior high.
To tackle this complication, UGM students agreed on doing a continuous and sustainable Student Community Service – Community Empowerment Learning (SCS-CEL) program with an emphasize on promoting “9 Years Compulsory Education Promotion”. In partnership with the Ministry of National Education, this program also attracts international students to join in. A total of 90 students in 2006, and 60 students in 2007 tackled the problem head on.
The focus area for these units are in Klaten, Sukoharjo, Karanganyar, Banjarnegara, and Wonosobo District in Central Java. Each unit developed their own way of doing the program with one mission in mind: to get children in school and keeping it that way. To do this, students in SCS-CEL units also have to be able to analyze the community’s condition: their livelihood, their cultural background, their social relations, and even daily challenges for the people. Only through a thorough understanding, the program will be effective and well-tailored to meet the people’s need.
Over the years, this program has been proven successful and has helped increased local community’s level of education enrolment. In Karanganyar District, the Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) has increased to 93.2%, in Sukoharjo 96.5%, and in Klaten 98.11%. Today, SCS-CEL students are spread to the remotest area in Indonesia to repeat their previous success in promoting “9 Years Compulsory Education” in Java.