Education
The Bali Children’s Project believes that no child should be denied the opportunity for a full and productive life. Our dream is to bring educational opportunities to as many children as possible. We not only provide support to schools and young people in many forms, but by starting early, hope to ignite a bright vision of the future. Recognising the importance of good role models, we also seek to provide children with valuable life skills not taught in schools such as decision-making and critical thinking.
Young people in Bali thirst for education, recognising that it provides an escape from poverty.
Although often inadequate, primary education in Indonesia is nominally free — even though children are required to provide their own uniforms and writing materials. However, after age 11, families must pay for their children’s continuing education. By western standards the cost appears small, but for many village families it represents an impossible financial burden. In rural areas, with high schools widely spaced, the cost of tranportation is a further barrier. The situation is often made worse by a widespread belief that education is a luxury available only to the rich. Thus, from an early age many children are compelled to forfeit their future in order to labor in the rice fields.
As so often happens, girls are first to be deprived of schooling, the gender gap widening at each rung of the educational ladder. The fundamental cause is economic, but is exacerbated by cultural factors such as perceived career expectations and traditional gender bias. This is reinforced by the use of textbooks using gender-biased stereotypes.
Schools in Bali are often in poor physical condition with classrooms unusable because of leaking roofs and broken furnishings. Most lack any teaching aids and teachers frequently struggle with inadequate supplies of books and writing materials.
The BCP is active in helping to make good these limitations, continually seeking
supplies, sponsors and professional help.
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