The Mentawai Future: Schools

Education is undeniably important and all people should have an opportunity to learn. Mentawai parents send their children to government schools because they are promised that the skills taught there will mean a bright future for their children. Unfortunately, the “education” offered on Siberut is little more than indoctrination designed to ensure a systematic resistance to Mentawai traditions. Children learn to read and write from hymns, are taught that they are Indonesians first and are given the mandate to “rescue” their people from “primitive” living. Believing this, many poorly educated students have made their way to the cities, only to be rejected by both societies, and are left homeless and starving.