Figure 1.--Indonesian only began building a public school system after achieving independence. At the time there were no schools in the countrysidde. Today Indonesia operates one of the largest public school systens in the worl and virtually all Indoinesian children have access to education.

As was the case throughout the European colonies, schools in the Dutch West Indies were primarily for the Dutch colonials and those Indonesian children with families connected to the colonial regime. The only public schools systems in the colonial world was the American in the neighboring Philippines and the Japanese in Korea and Taiwan. There were some Christian missionary schools and Islamic madrasas. The schools were located in the cities and towns. There was virtually no schools in the countryside. Only a fraction of Indonesian children went to any kind of school. And this was especially true for girls--paricularly Muslim girls. Literacy rates were very low. Only with independence did Indonesia begin to build a public school system. Indonesia since the 1970s has steadily expanded both primary and junior-secondary enrolment rates. And particularly impressively, the Government has narrowed the gap in school-completion rates between well-to-do and poor students as well as those from rural and urban areas. We belive that Chinese and Christians children initially had higher enrollment rates than Muslim children, but in recent years that gap has been significantly closed. Here we are still collecting the needed data.

Created: 12:01 PM 11/11/2017
Last updated: 12:01 PM 11/11/2017