Bringing Out-of-School Children Back to School in a Different Way

School Participation Rate (APS) at every level in Indonesia has increased every year. Various government efforts have been made to realize this, including incentive mechanisms such as the Education Unit Operational Cost (BOSP) and the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP) which make school fees lower, the construction of new schools close to students' homes, and the PPDB that has been implemented. Unfortunately, the increase has been lower every year (since 2014 to 2023).

What causes the School Participation Rate to decrease every year?

Under normal conditions, incentive mechanism can motivate individuals to go to school, but not in the current conditions. One of the main reasons for this condition is the complexity of the problem of Children Not in School that occurs.
From various literature, there are problems with children who do not attend school, namely:
1. Difficult access to schools
2. Expensive school fees
3. Awareness of the importance of education is still low
4. Other problems such as psychology due to bullying, administrative problems, suboptimal rules, and independent motivation.

What can be done?

If each individual has only one problem, maybe the government can solve it according to the problem. What if the problem is not actually standing alone? 

Article 33 Indonesia in the Annual Joint Sector Review (AJSR) 2024 tries to introduce a different way to resolve this with a tailor-made approach. In short, tailor-made approach is an approach that focuses on the needs of children that may not be captured in recorded problems, but we have various solution packages.

As an example of use tailor-made approach:

In East Java, there are children aged 9 and 11 years who do not attend school (dropped out during PAUD and SD) with the following conditions:

1. Father has died
2. Mother remarried
3. The child lives with his grandmother
4. Children feel they have learned to be independent

From the case study, what is the child's problem? Is it economic? Psychological? Family? Or all of them?

“Finding the right problem may cost a lot of money (time and effort), so meeting, asking, and providing what is needed is the best and most sustainable solution.”