WEARING bright pink dresses and flashy straw hats, septuagenarian Indonesian twins Sri Irianingsih and Sri Rossyati strolled through rows of desks as students attentively wrote on workbooks.
Known by students, parents and locals as “Ibu Kembar” – or Twin Mums in Bahasa Indonesia – the colourfully-garbed women established Kartini Emergency School in the middle of a once-elite area of Jakarta in 1983.
For over 40 years, the Twin Mums have schooled children aged six to 17 from marginalised families living in makeshift shacks along riverbanks and landfills.
“In the middle of this elite housing complex, these people sweep the streets,” Irianingsih said.
“They don’t have money, the cheapest tuition fees in that area are five million rupiahs (RM1,450). That’s why we created this school and let those kids enrol here.”
The Twin Mums are determined for their students to be able to carve out a living after their graduation. Students learn practical skillsets from cooking to flower arranging, ensuring that they won’t return to sorting through trash or begging on the streets.
Indonesia has required public primary schools to abolish tuition fees from 2008, yet many coming from low-income families struggle to afford excess costs such as uniforms and books.
One such student is Leni Nur Afia. Before enrolling with Kartini, her parents couldn’t afford schoolbooks, so she resorted to helping her mum run a store in an alley. Her younger brother, Jaka, also attends the school.
Leni, like most of the children in Kartini, does not possess a birth certificate required by the government for children to receive free education. Bureaucracy, complicated administration and extra travel and paperwork fees often hinder access, according to a 2020 survey from Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
Nia Latifah, an alumna of the school, faced the same challenges. Her father used to work as a low-paying office assistant.
“After going to the Twin Mums’ school and being guided by them, I was able to attend the University of Indonesia and now I am a Masters student”.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia has seen a 0.26% rise in children out of school in 2022 according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, with 38,716 primary children out of school in Jakarta alone.
Yet the Twin Mums remain undeterred in their mission. — Reuters
