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A teacher in a headscarf and uniform sits in front of a semicircle of children seated on wooden chairs. “Who wants to sing?” she asks the eight children before her. They all cheer, showing noisy enthusiasm, and she smiles.

“Singing class here isn’t really singing,” says Upi Sri Asih, the teacher. “But my students love it so much.”

Calming them, she picks up her pointer and directs their attention to lyrics written on a whiteboard. Their voices slipping in and out of pitch, the students sing wholeheartedly, adding hand signs for each word.

Upi is a teacher at the Santi Rama special needs elementary school in South Jakarta, which caters to children with varying degrees of deafness. The 204 students at Santi Rama are fortunate to attend a school where class numbers are limited to 10 students per teacher to allow adequate time to be devoted to each child. Despite Indonesia’s National Education Law giving parents of disabled children the right to enroll their offspring at special needs schools, in reality such schools are scarce and often difficult to access.

The Patrons of Disabled Children Foundation (YPAC) states that there are only 36 special needs schools in Jakarta, seven of them state-run and 29 administered privately.

Aria Indrawati, public relations manager of the Mitra Netra (Blind Partnership) Foundation, a nongovernmental organization providing services for the blind, said educational choices were limited for children with disabilities in Indonesia.

“In Indonesia, we don’t have a lot of special needs schools,” she said. “In some cases, a province may have only one school.”

In 2003, national census data from the Central Statistic Agency (BPS) showed there were 1,480,000 disabled people in the country, with only 5 percent of those eligible receiving any formal education. The official figure from the BPS on the number of disabled differs widely from outside estimates, which put the number of disabled worldwide at between 15 percent and 20 percent of the total population. The variance in the figures can be attributed in large part to different definitions of disabled.

Eko Jatmiko, the director general of management for primary and secondary education at the Ministry of National Education, said there was a budget allocated for special needs education. The directorate provides educational operational aid (BOP) to cover teaching and material expenses, and school operational aid (BOS) to help with such costs as school fees and utilities bills. It also administers scholarships to provide additional financial support.

“But [the budget is] not as much as for ordinary schools, and not enough if compared to the increasing number of students with special needs,” he said.

For 2009, the directorate has Rp 24.7 trillion ($2.4 billion) to spend on primary and secondary education in Indonesia, with only Rp 328 million going to special needs education, which includes both gifted children and those with disabilities.

Another option is for parents to enroll their children in “inclusive” schools — regular schools that accept students with disabilities but may not always have suitable teachers or teaching methods for children with disabilities. It is also unclear which schools will accept special need students, although the ministry has drafted a decree to identify inclusive schools. That decree is currently waiting approval by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Aria, from Mitra Netra, said an inclusive system would provide more options for families. “Instead of being segregated, the education system should let disabled children go to school near their houses,” she said. “Without being included in the system, there will never be ‘education for all.’ 

“Disabled children should be able to choose whether or not they want to get into special schools or just go to ordinary public schools.”

Purti Muki, the head of YPAC, said, “Inclusive schools are good to support special needs children with normal academic capabilities who can compete, but not all inclusive schools are ready with facilities, accessibility and teachers.”

Irawan is the father of a student at a special needs school for children with vision troubles in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta. The school has 70 students, ranging from kindergarten to the high school level.

“I found it very hard to get information about special needs schools for my son,” Irawan said. “I called 108 [information], but it’s not like everyone knows about [the existence of] this school.

“I go overseas a lot,” he added, “and my son once went to an inclusive school in Chicago for a few years. Of course, everything is far better than this.”

Suryadi, whose son just passed the national final exam, plans to enroll him at a public school next year. “I want my son to be independent, and to be able to compete with normal children,” he said.

Lusi, whose son is also at the school, is more hesitant, and said she would like to see her son perform well there before considering an inclusive school. “It would be a big help, since it’s quite far to go to Lebak Bulus every day,” she said.

Her family lives in South Jakarta but she and her son have to change buses several times to reach the school.

Other students come from as far away as Kalimantan and Riau because there aren’t any suitable schools for them in those areas. Students are able to board at the school in dormitories if required.

Both Irawan and Lusi said the attitude of other Indonesians toward children with disabilities was also a factor against choosing an inclusive school. “I’ve heard people talk about my son, that they’re afraid his blindness will spread to other children,” Lusi said. “Our society isn’t really open to disabled people. They stare.”

Irawan said, “Right now, I don’t think we are a priority for this country, let alone the education system. We don’t even have special signs on the streets for disabled children. Even in this school, there is no special parking lots or sidewalks.”

For Yuliawati, the parent of a student at Santi Rama, an inclusive school is not an option for her son because he is profoundly deaf. “They [inclusive schools] are good for children with a low level of disability,” she said. “But for children like my son, I think it’s better to enroll them in a special needs school.”

Which, for now at least, means many families have to plan around the travel time and costs involved in attending the few available special schools.

Santi Rama students come not only from Jakarta, but also from surrounding cities including Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi. The school receives BOS from the National Education Ministry but no longer receives BOP as of this year, because it is a private school, principal Tri Wanti said. “In our school, [families] pay what they can afford. Some of our students pay Rp 300,000 or Rp 400,000 [monthly]” he said.

“The main problem is the distance, because some of them live so far away, that’s why the cost of going to this school can be a lot higher for them.”

For the past two years, the school’s tuition has increased by 10 percent each year. The Santi Rama Foundation has a budget shortfall of Rp 700 million for an academic year, said Yuliawati, who is also head of the parents’ organization at the school. “We really need the government to help us, because if there’s no help, it means an extra financial burden for us parents.”
The special needs school for children with vision troubles in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, is not just for blind students, principal Kastono said.

“We don’t just accept blind, but also multidisabled visually impaired students [MDVI],” Kastono said.

“In our school, we are mobility oriented. We introduce our students to their surroundings, so they can learn to do things on their own.”

Teachers of MDVI students may have only one charge, and never more than two.

“My student, Sarah, is very sensitive,” said Tati, who teaches a new 8-year-old student with visual and communication difficulties. “She doesn’t like it when I talk to other people.

“I have to be very patient,” she said, explaining that MVDI students are often emotionally unstable. “They do things to attract people’s attention because they cannot always say what they want.”

Tati teaches Sarah new words using songs, a teaching method her young student enjoys. She also teaches her basic life skills, such as how to ask for what she wants, to return things to their place, to walk around confidently and to be familiar with the school environment.

Yuyu teaches the same skills to her MVDI student, who has just passed an exam to continue on to junior high school.

“I have taught her to take care of herself, because she was very dependent,” Yuyu said.

“Can you imagine how sad I was? She’s 14, and she still needed help from her parents, sometimes even her brother, to bathe.”

It takes more effort and much longer to get disabled children through school. “It normally take them eight years to finish elementary school, and that’s after four years in kindergarten.”

For these reasons, the Santi Rama special elementary school, which teaches deaf students, sometimes accepts children at a very young age.

“In our kindergarten, we have toddlers from age 2 and sometimes one-and-a-half years old,” principal Tri Wanti said. “It takes them about five years before they go into elementary school.”

In cases of deafness, he said, the sooner the children attend school the better, so that they can begin learning sign language and to lip-read earlier.


Special Treatment Required for Special Needs Students

The special needs school for children with vision troubles in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, is not just for blind students, principal Kastono said.

“We don’t just accept blind, but also multidisabled visually impaired students [MDVI],” Kastono said.

“In our school, we are mobility oriented. We introduce our students to their surroundings, so they can learn to do things on their own.”
Teachers of MDVI students may have only one charge, and never more than two.

“My student, Sarah, is very sensitive,” said Tati, who teaches a new 8-year-old student with visual and communication difficulties. “She doesn’t like it when I talk to other people.

“I have to be very patient,” she said, explaining that MVDI students are often emotionally unstable. “They do things to attract people’s attention because they cannot always say what they want.”

Tati teaches Sarah new words using songs, a teaching method her young student enjoys. She also teaches her basic life skills, such as how to ask for what she wants, to return things to their place, to walk around confidently and to be familiar with the school environment.

Yuyu teaches the same skills to her MVDI student, who has just passed an exam to continue on to junior high school.
“I have taught her to take care of herself, because she was very dependent,” Yuyu said.

“Can you imagine how sad I was? She’s 14, and she still needed help from her parents, sometimes even her brother, to bathe.”

It takes more effort and much longer to get disabled children through school. “It normally take them eight years to finish elementary school, and that’s after four years in kindergarten.”

For these reasons, the Santi Rama special elementary school, which teaches deaf students, sometimes accepts children at a very young age.
“In our kindergarten, we have toddlers from age 2 and sometimes one-and-a-half years old,” principal Tri Wanti said. “It takes them about five years before they go into elementary school.”

In cases of deafness, he said, the sooner the children attend school the better, so that they can begin learning sign language and to lip-read earlier.