[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesian migrant workers to get education in Malaysia

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

RI workers to get education in Malaysia 

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is aiming to provide migrant workers and their families in 
Malaysia with opportunities for schooling to help them overcome the disadvantages 
they face, including disruptions to education.

National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo said Tuesday the government was 
in the process of attaining permits from Malaysia's education and home 
ministries to establish schools there. 

"We are executing the plan carefully, because in our efforts to build 
schools, there are a number of legal constraints," he said after attending a meeting 
with university students in East Jakarta. 

Bambang said that 109 teachers were ready to go to Malaysia as soon as 
permits were issued. 

The government is planning to send a total of 600 teachers to staff formal 
and non-formal schools for Indonesia migrant workers and their children in 
Malaysia. 

The Indonesian government's move to provide education for its migrant workers 
in Malaysia is in the interests of both countries. 

Migrant workers are prevalent in Malaysia and the country's government says 
it is very difficult to provide migrant students with equal access to 
education. 

The rector of Universitas Malaysia Sabah's, Datuk Mohammad Noh Dalimin, said 
recently that about 25,000 migrant workers' children were domiciled in Sabah 
and could not go to school due to cultural differences. 

"I see them playing around on the streets every day without knowing who their 
parents are. The (Malaysia) government cannot put them into our schools 
because they often miss classes for weeks at a stretch." 

National Education Ministry officials have cited differences in the national 
curricula of the two countries, particularly in relation to the subjects of 
history and civics, as reasons for not sending Indonesian children to Malayisan 
schools. 

To overcome the problem, the countries have made an agreement, allowing 
Indonesia to establish education facilities for its workers and their families. 

A special team coordinated by Vice President Jusuf Kalla is now preparing to 
build about 100 schools, from elementary to senior high school level, for the 
registered 36,000 Indonesian workers' children living in Malaysia. 

Indonesia's Non-Formal Education director Ace Suryadi told The Jakarta Post 
that the government was also surveying locations to establish a non-formal 
study center near Kuala Lumpur, so that migrant workers could finish junior high 
school, getting the diploma they are required to have by Indonesian law. 

"We are still assessing the location and the available funding. We are hoping 
to get contributions from our other partners," he said. 

The director of international NGO network Migrant Care, Anis Hidayah, praised 
the countries' plan to give Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia 
consistency in their education. 

"I think it's a huge step, because we know that Malaysia is very resistant to 
Indonesia's policy on migrant workers, making them live in deplorable 
conditions." 

She cited as an example that 68 percent of the more than 500,000 workers 
there were prohibited from taking breaks to pray by their employers, and 67 
percent also claimed they had not received payment. 

If both countries seriously implement the plan, she said, all NGOs concerning 
migrant workers issues here and in Malaysia would gladly support it in any 
way they could. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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