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International Non Governmental Organization Save The Children recently released a global reportof the bestcountries to live for children where Indonesia is ranked 101 among 172 countries.
Indonesias rank is not really shocking considering the number of children not going to school throughout the country, especially those at the ages of junior high school students despite theyre supposed to be a part of the nine-year compulsory education program, said SelinaSumbung, the chief ofYayasanSayangiTunasCilik, a local partner of Save The Children.
The report, titled Stolen Childhoods, ranks countries based on a series of indicators related to childhood and child growth, including under-5 mortality rate, child stunting rate, the number of primary and secondary dropouts, the number of child labor, the number of child marriage, adolescent birth rate, displaced population due to conflict and child homicide rate.
Indonesia is ranked 101, above Myanmar (112), Cambodia (117) and Laos (130), but far below Singapore (33), Malaysia (65) and Thailand (84).
Norway tops the rankings while Nigeria is placed at the bottom of the list.
Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) data of 2015 shows 96.70 percent of Indonesian children participate (or have participated) in primary school, 77.82 percent in secondary school, and only 59.71 in high school.
Meanwhile, UNICEFs data in 2016 claims that there are around 2.5 millionsIndonesian children that cannot go to school 600,000 of those in primary school age and the rest in junior high school age.
Stolen Childhoods reports that around 14.3 percent of Indonesian children cannot access primary and secondary education.
Indonesia has clearly shown economic and development growth these past years, but poverty is still a problem that has to be solved, especially considering that children are the most vulnerable group (affected) by the decision to quit school something that is usually taken by families that cant afford the cost of education,Selinasaid. Though some also quit school because they experience discrimination due to physical condition or because they have to get married young.
(brl/red)
