# 2.1. Characteristics of Selected Districts

Table 2: Gender Parity Index for Net Enrollment Rates and Literacy Rates

|Gender<br>Parity<br>Index (GPI)<br>for:|Education<br>Level|National|East Java<br>Province|Bangkalan<br>District|Sampang<br>District|South<br>Kalimantan<br>Province|Banjar Baru<br>District|Banjarmasin<br>District|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Net<br>Enrollment<br>Rates (NER)|Primary<br>Jr. Secondary|0.99<br>1.01|0.99<br>1.00|1.00<br>0.79|0.98<br>0.89|0.98<br>1.01|0.97<br>1.14|0.96<br>1.10|
||Sr. Secondary|1.03|1.00|0.97|1.05|1.02|0.82|0.80|
|Literacy<br>rates (ages<br>50+)||0.88|0.81|0.75|0.76|0.93|0.96|0.97|

_Notes: GPI is a_ _<mark>ratio of female to male values of a given indicator. GPI for NER is a ratio of female NER to male NER. GPI for literacy is a ratio of female literacy rates to male literacy rates.</mark>_ <mark>Source: Susenas 2018.</mark>

## **_Province 1: East Java_**

The province of East Java is located on the eastern most end of the island of Java and includes the island of Madura. The population of the province is about 39.3 million people, representing 15 percent of Indonesia’s total population. The population sex ratio is 97.5, showing a higher population of females to males.<sup>9</sup> The province’s early marriage rate—a measure of marriage before 18 years of age—is 24.5 percent, meaning that around one-fourth of ever-married women aged 20-24 married before 18 years of age, and the province is ranked 14 of 33 provinces in terms of the prevalence of early marriage (UNICEF, 2016). The national average for early marriage is 23 percent. The average GPI for NERs at primary up to senior secondary school is 1.01. While the literacy<sup>10</sup> gap is insignificant for the younger generation, the gap in favor of males for older population is nearly 17 percent, or 5 percent higher than the national average. This means that women aged 50 and older are on average 17 percent less literate than men in the same age group.

In terms of teaching staff, there are about 40,000 more female teachers than male teachers at the primary level, while there are about equal numbers of female and male teachers at the junior secondary and senior secondary levels.<sup>11</sup> In terms of school principals, there are only 8,900 female principals, or 32 percent of total principals in East Java.

Two districts in East Java were selected for visits for this study, namely Bangkalan and Sampang, both of which are located on the island of Madura, which was noted by several interviewees during field visits as an area of the country that has been “left behind” in education. In 2018, the average GPI for NERs in Bangkalan at senior secondary is 0.97 and, among the population aged 50 years and over, women are 24 percent less literate than men.<sup>12</sup> In Sampang, the average GPI for NERs at the three different school levels is also 0.97, and there is a 15-percentage-point gender gap in literacy in the 50-years-and-over age group.

> 9 BPS (2018). _Statistik Indonesia 2018_ : https://www.bps.go.id/publication/2018/07/03/5a963c1ea9b0fed6497d0845/statistik- <u>indonesia-2018.html</u>

> 10 Literacy rate is the percentage of population who can read and write simple sentences.

> 11 Overview of Education and Cultural Data 2017/18.

> 12 Susenas 2018.

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