From Out-of-School to Back in Class: Kota Serang Makes Strides in Education

Serang City, the capital of Indonesia’s Banten province, has relatively low school enrollment rates (SER). Although this issue was recognized by the city government, it was not reflected in its plans and budgets. Only after USAID ERAT (Effective, Efficient, and Strong Governance) supported a peer-to-peer learning process highlighting the success of Pekalongan (in Central Java province) in increasing SER did the Serang government start showing interest. 

Serang’s government learned from Pekalongan to mobilize subdistrict and ward offices to verify and validate the data of out-of-school children identified in the Education Database. The start of the 2023-2024 academic year in July 2023 spurred the city government to mobilize its resources to accelerate the data validation, confirm with the children their willingness to return to the education system, and consult with schools to accept them. This process identified the need for financing non-school costs such as uniforms, school supplies, and transportation. Unfortunately, the government did not allocate a budget for these costs, so a local bank and the National Islamic Alms Agency (BAZNAS) contributed financial support for the returning students. Within three months after the Pekalongan case was introduced, the city government returned ten children back to schools and equivalency education programs in July 2023. The government continued its efforts to identify, verify, validate, and return out-of-school children, bringing an additional 155 children back into the education system by July 2024. 

This case exemplifies how USAID ERAT applied adaptive program implementation in supporting Serang’s government in addressing its development issue through external collaboration.