12/5/2014 The failure of education in Papua’s highlands http://www.insideindonesia.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=3043:bobby-anderson6&catid=200&Itemid=346&tmpl=component&print=1&layout=defaul… 1/9 The failure of education in Papua’s highlands Special Autonomy is widely regarded as a failure, but its impact on Papuaҋs schools has been even worse than expected Bobby Anderson A student at the private Ob Anggen school, Bokondini, Tolikara. Bobby Anderson Under Papuaҋs 2001 Special Autonomy Law, the majority of Papuaҋs natural resource wealth is returned to the province. The law was meant to address both the sources of political unrest in Papua, and the challenges ordinary Papuans experience on a daily basis. For example, it was meant to increase Papuan access to government jobs and economic opportunities, as well as to health and education services. A dozen years and billions of dollars later, most Papuans still live in misery: they have the highest malnutrition, tuberculosis and HIV rates in Indonesia; they are the poorest; and they have the lowest rate of life expectancy. Special autonomy has failed. But the greatest failure has little to do with the aspects of special autonomy that were implemented by Jakarta. Rather, it is the parts of special autonomy that were handed over to provincial and district officials: health and education services. The autonomy cash cow Many local officials and elites no longer see special autonomy as a means of development. For them, it is a way to access greater national subsidies, which they can take for themselves or spread through their patronage networks. For the elite, affirmative action is no longer a means to redress the under-representation of Papuans in official positions; instead, it is another way of milking the system. ҊNo-showҋ jobs have proliferated. Papua now has more than double the number of civil