The boy swiftly ran criss crossing the tennis court. Without a racket on his hand and a complexion too tanned for his age, obviously he's the ball boy. I accidentally hit him with my wild ball and said sorry profusely. My coach chuckled lovingly saying that the risk he had to take. Getting hit by a ball is his daily portion. For the last 15 minutes of my coaching session, somehow, my mind wondered to this boy. I had a feeling about him that I couldn't explain; like something about him that I was curious to know. And my guts told me that the boy did not go to school.
After the session was over, I asked him, "What grade are you in?" He turned sheepish and didn't answer. At that moment, I wished I had asked the question smoother than that. My coach answered for him, "He's not in school anymore." We had an adult conversation in a lower tone so the boy wouldn't hear about his family, about tuition fee, about the school entrance fee, about his 4 other siblings. Coach said that the entrance fee now is about Rp. 2.000.000 or US$ 200. And I spent some 15 minutes asking him "are you sure?" in 15 different ways. I just couldn't believe it because it's a lot of money for low income Indonesians. Hell, it's a lot of money for me and I can't imagine the boy's parents ever having that much.
What has happened to Indonesia's education system obviously is beyond my understanding. Policy has not been my thing, but I'm starting to think that that's the only way to make a difference. I could, let's say, after going through my stinginess, help this boy go to school. But, the truth is there will be 100 more of his neighbors pleading for the same fate. I could keep kicking on this giant steel ball, make dents all over it, but the bottom like is, I will not move it. It's the same thing as me recycling all my papers when somewhere in Riau our forest is burnt at the rate of a soccer field a day. You'd think you're making a difference when all you do truthfully is moot.
Is our education system geared towards the educated? It seems so. The educated has more money to pay, has more awareness of the importance of learning, has access to online information, is connected to the right people. The educated unfortunately after realizing what he has, is competitive. He does not share. How many people who come to that sport center that I go to, know this ball boy? Or any of the other ball boys, or the struggles of the caddies, or the pool cleaners? The educated, who spends excess money for leisure and sports, does not know how to share some with people he meets on a daily basis. I do not know how to share. I do not even know the ball boy's name.
Sometimes, I think education is not so much for the knowledge nor it is the perfect platform to get a high-paying job. I think the most important thing an education gives is hope. A hope that through it, you can be a better person, that you will be somebody who matters, that you'll make your family proud of you. A hope that there's something good in the future, that you can still dream because you know at least you have the ammunition to shoot for it. No matter how ridiculous they may be.
So, I haven't actually decided if making some dents is really truly a non-sensical useless effort. And I don't know if there will be a day when school is truly for everyone no matter what backgrounds we're from. But I believe that hope is what keeps us going. If you can't hope, there's very little point in doing anything at all.
These two Papuan students, given the chance to come to Jakarta and be in school here, can tell me what they want to be when they grow up. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that ball boy can. And I honestly do not dare to ask.
