Rural and Remote Education Initiative

About

Indigenous children in rural and remote areas of Papua remain severely disadvantaged, with almost 50 per cent of over 5 year olds in rural areas of Papua province never having attended school, compared with 5 per cent in urban areas.

Education opportunities have only modestly expanded in Papua and West Papua in recent years. Data indicates that there remain significant equity gaps across Papua and West Papua based on geographic distribution, wealth, urban vs. rural, and indigenous vs. non-indigenous divisions. In general, children in rural areas face significant obstacles to accessing effective education services. Although data is enduringly difficult to collect and validate, the low level of student enrolments is likely linked to the weak pedagogical knowledge of teachers, poor quality of teaching and presence of corporal punishment, and the associated low value attached to schooling by students and parents.

To address this context, UNICEF with support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Government of Australia, has implemented the Rural and Remote Education Initiative for Papuan Provinces, with the Government of Indonesia. 

Throughout the implementation of the program, UNICEF partnered with various Civil Society Organizations on the development of teaching and learning materials including Yayasan Credo, Yayasan Literasi Anak Indonesia (YLAI), Yayasan Nusantara Sejati and Room to Read as well as collaboration with The Asian Foundation on digitalizing the levelled reading books through its Let’s Read online platform.

In the targeted districts, UNICEF partnered with six local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) below: 

UNICEF Indonesia would like to express appreciation to DFAT and our implementing partners for supporting this work. The Rural and Remote Education Initiative for Papuan Provinces has contributed to improvement of literacy skills amongst early grade students in 120 targeted schools across Papua and West Papua.