Big Dreams to Pursue Higher Education

Education is the most important factor in life. Although the cost of higher education is getting more expensive. For the sake of sending their children to school, parents will fight for everything.

KOMPAS/WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO

Participants of the 2022 state higher education entrance examination at Jenderal Sudirman University, Purwokerto, Banyumas, Central Java, Tuesday (17/5/2022). A total of 16,651 participants took this exam.

One day in 2015, Rosmadiana Sidabutar (50) was forced to borrow money from a neighbor to pay for transportation of her son, who was going to take a scholarship test at the Pelita Harapan University. Ros, Rosmadiana's nickname, only had Rp 15,000 (US$1) in cash when Basten, her first child, asked for Rp 50,000 for transportation costs to take part in the test in Karawaci, Tangerang.

On the one hand, Ros was happy because the door to higher education had finally opened for her son, who was in Grade X at that time. However, on the other hand, she was sad because she was not able to give the money her son asked for.

Ros and her husband, Benget Simanjuntak (54) have uncertain incomes. Her husband works odd jobs, sometimes as a motorcycle-taxi driver, scavenger or even construction worker. As for Ros, she is only a housewife, who sometimes sells food.

So far, the family has lived in her brother’s house in the Rawalumbu area, Bekasi. The house is the only house in the residential that is still in its original form (has not been renovated). Many parts of the house have been damaged.

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With the loan from the neighbor, Basten finally passed the scholarship test and was able to study at Pelita Harapan University, majoring in Teacher Education, free of charge. "When my son obtained the scholarship, it felt like he had already graduated," said Ros when Kompas met her at her home, on Monday (11/7/2022).

Initially, Ros was pessimistic that her son would be able to pursue higher education. "Lord, don't let him just get there [up to Grade X only]," she prayed at the time.

His prayer was answered. Basten was finally able to finish studying in the Department of Teacher Education and now has become a junior-high-school teacher in Surabaya. Ros and Benget have the principle that children's education should be better than that of their parents.

Such a principle is now being applied to their third child, Elia Meylani (18), in pursuing further education. Unlike Basten, Meylani did not pass the UPH scholarship test, so she could not get a free higher education.

KOMPAS/SATRIO PANGARSO WISANGGENI

Elia Meylani Simanjuntak (left) and her mother, Rosmadiana Sidabutar (right) sit in the front room of their house in Bekasi, West Java, on Monday (11/7/2022) afternoon.

Meylani has just been accepted as a student at the Data Science Study Program at the Sumatra Institute of Technology (Itera) through an achievement-selection track (without attending admission test). This means that Ros only has to pay tuition fees of Rp 2 million per semester, plus living cost in Bandar Lampung.

The husband and wife are optimistic that they can pay the tuition fee until Meylani finishes her education. "Don't be afraid of the cost; God will surely love you," said Benget, stammering.

Benget said that his four children had so far received a fee waiver from the school with the use of certificate of a poor family (SKTM) from Kelurahan (sub-district office). "I'm not ashamed to have to go back and forth from the RT [neighborhood unit] to RW [community unit] to the kelurahan to take care of the SKTM," said Benget.

In fact, according to him, in order to complete the requirements to get the subsidy for Meylani's tuition fee, many procedures must be observed, such as providing the SKTM certificate, photos of the house to the ownership of the house.

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Not only the Benget family have to work extra hard to be able to provide higher education for their children. Awareness of the importance of pursuing higher education continues to increase every year. The gross enrollment rate (GER) for college and university from the Higher Education Statistics (2016-2020) continues to increase every year. In 2016, the GER was still around 31.61 and in 2020 it was 36.16. The results of a Kompas poll, early last July, also showed that 80 percent of respondents chose to go to college or university. However, 40 percent of them have to work to pay tuition fees.

The same thing also happened to Theresia Mutiara (22), a student from Bantul, Yogyakarta. During nearly four years at a private university, she always had difficulty paying tuition fees as her family relied only on her father's monthly pension of Rp 3 million.

However, her family tried to do what they could to ensure Teresa could finish her study. Her father and brother, every six months, submit a fee-waiver letter to the university. "So that tuition fees can be paid in installments every month," he said. Normally, the students are only given a week to pay the tuition fees for each semester.

In fact, during the sixth semester, because of having no money, her parents had to borrow from the bank to pay the tuition fee.

Theresia also tried to lighten the burden on her parents, by finding scholarships and side jobs. She managed to get a two-semester scholarship.

DOKUMENTASI KBRI SINGAPURA

Singapore study group students after receiving a bachelor's degree from the Open University, Sunday (13/3/2022). They are all female Indonesian migrant workers in Singapore.

Increase knowledge

From Kare Subdistrict, Madiun Regency, East Java, Dwi Susanti (33) proved how Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) in Taiwan can obtain a bachelor's degree.

“Pursuing higher education had been my lifelong dream. But, because there was no money, I went to Taiwan to work," said Santi, on Friday (8/7), in an interview through Zoom. Santi said that since high school, she became interested in management science after reading a collection of books at her friend's house.

Santi kept her dream. In her second year working as a caregiver in Taiwan, she heard information about the Open University (UT) through social media, Facebook. Conducting a long-distance study would enable her to realize her dream.

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However, she was able to realize her dream to pursue higher education only in her sixth year in Taiwan. “I also have to learn Mandarin first, so I can communicate with the boss and ask permission to go to college [long distance study],” she said. She also had to save to buy a laptop.

Finally, in 2014, Santi started studying at the Department of Management at UT. However, she had to face a number of difficulties to realize her dream. For four years, Santi had to be smart in dividing her time between her work taking care of the elderly and her study.

Every day, Santi could only study and complete her assignments after 09.00 p.m. This meant that she had to reduce her sleep time to create more time for studying. Not to mention that if she had to appear for face-to-face learning, she had to again ask her employer's permission for leave.

While in Taiwan for 13 years, Santi not only worked to take care of the elderly, but also opened a fashion business to sell clothes made in Indonesia. "I worked with my sister as a tailor and my husband who handled the raw materials and the shipping process," she said.

For Santi, the management study she had taken played a key role in developing her clothing and food business. "This is the benefit I got from studying at a university. I know about branding, marketing, how to calculate, the licensing process and choosing raw materials," she said.

Education will never run out, unlike money that will always run out.

Santi added that studying at college or university was not about getting a grade, but the ability to think. This is what was advised to his first child, who this year graduated from vocational high school and chose to become an immigrant worker in Japan.

The Benget and Santi families have demonstrated the importance of higher education: it is not just to pursue value or increase income, but to improve knowledge, experience and relationships.

Education is the most important factor in life. As Rosmadiana said, "Education will never run out, unlike money that will always run out."

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.