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Bandung: On his first day as West Java governor, Ahmad Heryawan, has promised free and cheap education.

He also said he was determined to accomplish the nine-year school compulsory program and break new ground for a 12-year compulsory school program.

“We want to have a qualified education service that is achievable in line with our regional state budget,” said Ahmad.

He explained that the funding may not only come from the regional state budget, but also from some aid program.

“As long as school-aged children can go to school,” said Ahmad.

The number of students dropping out of junior and high schools amounts to 1.4 million students.

Some 62.12 percent or 105,977 elementary school buildings are damaged, while 3.39 million students do not have proper educational facilities.

Ahmad also mentioned two other sectors that should be improved immediately, they health and infrastructure sectors.

In the health sector, more than 400,000 births are still being assisted by non-medical workers thus putting mothers at high risk.

“As many as 38.77 percent of midwives are non-medical workers,” said Ahmad yesterday (16/6).

In addition, the new Governor highlighted the number of poor people in West Java.

The National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) has reported 30.79 percent of the total population is poor while the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) reported that the figure is only 13.55 percent.

The number of poor families has been increasing continuously since 1999.

In the infrastructure sector, 60 percent of households have electricity while the rest do not.

Source