Palm Oil Fund Make Dream to Study Come True

SOMETIMES, young people who remain in oil palm plantation located in rural or remote regions are being left when it comes to higher education.

Palm Oil Fund Make Dream to Study Come True
SOMETIMES, young people who remain in oil palm plantation located in rural or remote regions are being left when it comes to higher education. Obstacles and disadvantages often make their wish to go to college or university remain a dream that never come true. However, a higher education is made possible for them with government intervention as conducted by the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) by providing scholarship.  A grant provided by BPDPKS is aimed to provide education support for children of oil palm smallholders and workers so that they can go to college or universities in cities across Indonesia. The scholarship that comes from palm oil levy funds covers tuition fees, allowance, textbook cost, transportation cost, and so on. The grant is expected to ease financial burden of oil palm smallholders and workers to provide proper education for their children. Rizky Jaya Pratama, for instance, is a palm oil plantation youngster who has been awarded scholarship to study at a vocational college with the sponsorship of BPDPKS and facilitated by Indonesian Oil Palm Smallholders Association (Apkasindo). Rizky who is son of Muliono, a smallholder from Area 100 Belutu Village, Subdistric of Kandis, Siak Regency, Riau, study for diploma degree in Institut Pertanian Stiper (Instiper), an agricultural college in Yogyakarta. Apkasindo was so delighted with the scholarship that they held a Malay traditional ceremony called tepung tawar ceremony to celebrate Rizky’s success. “It is like a dream, I’ve never expected this before, my son is awarded scholarship,” Muliono said. Muchlisin, student from Riau, was also delighted to receive scholarship since he has always wanted to study in a agricultural college like Instiper. “When I was in junior high school I dreamed about going to Instiper and now it has come true.” It was not only Rizky and Muchlisin, there are totally 113 scholarship awardees from Riau who are childs of oil palm smallholders and workers. They go to Instiper in Yogyakarta and Palm Oil Polytechnic Widya Edukasi in Bekasi, West Java. Other scholarship was also awarded to students to study in diploma program in Politenik Perkebunan LPP, Yogyakarta, an agricultural polytechnic that began its first lecture for this academic year on 22 October 2018. In total, in collaboration with Apkasindo, BPDPKS has awarded scholarship to 300 students of diploma I program and to 90 students of diploma III for this academic year. Meanwhile in South Kalimantan, children of palm oil smallholders and workers were also delighted with the scholarship. For this academic year, five students go to universities and colleges with the sponsorship of the scholarship provided by BPDPKS. Three of  the five students study for Sarjana degree and the others study in diploma program. In 2017, 17 students from South Kalimantan were sent to several cities across the country to continue to study. According to Chairman of BPD Apkasindo H Syamsul Bahri, the scholarship program is essential to continue in years to come to improve capacity in palm oil sector. “I hope similar programs could be implemented to give a chance for children of palm oil smallholders and workers to develop their oil palm plantations,” Syamsul said. (Sources: Sawit Indonesia, Tribun Banjarmasin) *** ``