Jakarta (ANTARA) - Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri has said street children should go back to school. "Many children have to stay on the streets because they do not have money for food and for school," the social affairs minister said here on Sunday. Therefore he called on parents not to let their children roaming the streets but send them back to school. According to him, most of the street children whom he have had encountered have actually self confidence with clear goals to have good education but unfortunately their parents did not have money to send them to school. On Saturday evening, the social affairs minister had a dialog with hundreds of street children from Jakarta, Bogor, Bekasi, Depok, and Tangerang (Jabodetabek) at Taman Ismail Marzuki. In a relaxed and intimate atmosphere, Minister Salim Segaf asked what the children wanted to be later in life. To his surprise, some of them told the minister they wanted to go to school but they did not have money. "I am so proud to have a dialog with you, and I will encourage all parties, including the officials Social Affairs Ministry officials to help the street children reach heir goal," Salim Segaf said in the dialog. According to the social affairs minister, state schools were basically free for children of poor parents and therefore there should be no difficulty for them to go back to school. Salim Segaf said the children who have difficulty to be accepted at public schools would have a package education system in cooperation with some 48 halfway houses in Jakarta. Data from the Social Affairs Ministry indicated that the number of abandoned children is now approaching five million and around 230,000 street children. The minister said that essentially those children should go back to school, and those who have reached 18 years of age would be given skills to make them independent.

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Editor : Chandra Hamdani Noer


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