MAMPU Partners Meet the Education Minister for Poor Women’s Education Access

MAMPU’s partners has a chance to meet the Minister of Education and Culture, Anis Baswedan, on Tuesday, 14 June 2016.  At the meeting, the partners voice their concerns and made suggestions for better education services that can reach poor women.

MAMPU partners present 15 suggestions to the ministry, among others are, the need to include sexual and reproductive health education in schools’ curriculum, increase teachers awareness about gender to support girls’ access to education, play a role that can help ending early/child marriage, provide a policy that allows pregnant student to continue going to school, provide fund for life-long learning for poor women, revitalize the use of 20% education fund, expand education access for children of migrant workers in Malaysia and raise schools awareness about anti-trafficking.

MAMPU receives good response from the Minister. He informs MAMPU’s partners about programs from the ministry where they can be involved.  For example, the Ministry now requires each school to dedicate 15 minutes every day and encourage their students to read books, other than textbooks.

“Education about sexual and reproductive health could be integrated in this session with various format,” says the Minister. The Ministry is now reviewing the materials of sexual and reproductive health and welcome any inputs from MAMPU partners. He also says that the Ministry has issued a circular letter to schools to allow pregnant girls continue going to school.

He also explained about the latest Kemdikbud database on Regional Education Balance (NPD), which presents the condition of education in various regions in Indonesia. This database was launched in February 2016 and using 2015 data for each district / city. To access the NPD, check the website: npd.data.kemdikbud.go.id

The Minister says that he is very happy to collaborate with MAMPU partners.  He asks MAMPU and his staff to coordinate for further steps.

Reported by: Desy Mutialim (Program Communication and Knowledge Management Manager)