DENPASAR ~

Bali Provincial Government starts from 2015 prepares boarding school and bear the consumption provision for students who live far from the location of the school buildings to prevent dropout.

“Like students who live in Subaya, Songan, Bangli regency, they take three hours to go to school. They need to be pulled out of the house in order to be able to continue their education,” said Head of Education, Youth and Sports (Disdikpora) of Bali Province Tjokorda Istri Agung (TIA) Kusuma Wardani in Denpasar.

Bali provincial government, she said, making a breakthrough by preparing dormitory and food for students in remote areas because it turns out that School Operational Assistance (BOS) and poor scholarship is not enough to help them from dropouts.

“After we met the parents, as in Subaya, children were often regarded as a source of income by the parents so that they are not allowed to attend school, moreover the distance from their house to school is up to eight kilometers,” she said.

Parents of those students are objecting if their children attend school. As a result, the students’ learning process becomes increasingly disturbed apart due to the long distance to school.

Therefore, TIA said, the students with these conditions must be “pulled” out of the home environment. Otherwise, the problem will not be resolved.

“For boarding school program, we also ask to be facilitated by principals and heads of villages in the area. For the provision of dormitories, there are teachers’ messes that we should renovate,” she said.

In addition, development of Junior High School (SMP) policies is also taken to be built as one with the elementary school building, so the students do not need to go far again when they want to go back to school to pursue a higher education.

TIA suggested, for the construction of dormitory and infrastructure of other educational support in Subaya, has been allocated a budget up to Rp960 million.

Based on data from Education Office of Bali, the number of students who drop out of school for the 2012-2013 academic year in Bali is high enough. For students of elementary School reached 414 students, SMP (junior High School) (318), and SMA / MA / SMK (Senior High School) 466 students. The majority of dropouts are in Buleleng and Karangasem Regency.