In Reply to: schooling sponsorships posted by bali smiles on Friday, 24. April 2009 at 00:05 Bali Time:
You say there is no such thing as "free schooling in Bali". However that is incorrect, not all of Bali is the same, in the Bangli region they are not charged to attend years 1-6).
What we find is, the expenses are mainly uniforms (about 10% go to school without a uniform, which is pretty good but that is mainly from donations), and sometimes the parents don't send a child to school for a day as they do not have the money for the mid morning snack, usually about 3000rp per child is needed for them to have a snack/meals with their friends. We find the families that don't have the money for uniforms etc have a truancy rate of about 30%.
I have worked (and also lived for 2 years) for 3 years in this region of Bali and still work with the schools so this is first hand knowledge. Just wanted people to know this as it is mentioned quite often on this forum that schooling is not free in Bali and that is untrue in the region of Bangli, which covers one of the poorer areas such as Kintamni etc. In other regions it may be different, I do not have first hand knowledge so cannot comment.
Keep up the good work Jan!