Education for all: A study on education for indigenous people in South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Getting an education is the right of all citizens wherever they are and from whatever socio-cultural background they belong to. However, in many regions of Indonesia, due to geographical, economic, and socio-cultural issues, the basic rights mentioned above cannot be realized. One community, whose children could not go to school because of economic and socio-cultural reasons, is the Tana Towa, or Kajang indigenous people, in South Sulawesi. One of the reasons is related to formal school procedures that are contrary to the habits of the Kajang community. One of these is related to clothes. The Kajang people generally consider black color very sacred, however, in school they must wear red (Elementary School) and blue (Junior High School). This article aimed to understand a number of issues in indigenous education and identified various educational issues in the Tana Towa area, and a number of policies and initiatives that can be undertaken to address the problem were formulated. In addition, this article aimed to formulate a model that can be used to develop education in Tana Towa Kajang. This model can not only be applied to the Tana Towa, but also can be used for other indigenous peoples who are scattered in many places in Indonesia.