Oe-Cusse, January 31, 2025 (Média Democracia) – Afriana Meco, 17 years old from Nipani in Pante Makasar, Oe-cusse, during her studies she had to pay for her own public transportation every day.
Afriana said that while attending Mahata Middle School, she had to pay 0.50 cents for public transportation to get to school. If she didn’t have the money, she couldn’t go to school because of the long distance.
“I study in Mahata Junior High School, now I am in 8th grade. Every day I have to pay 0.50 cents for public transportation to school, but I have to prepare 1 USD and sometimes I still need to buy water and food so that I can eat and study well until the study hours are over and I go home.” She said.
She continued, so far the teaching and learning process at her school started at 13:00 and ended at 17:00, so at 11:00 she had to finish cooking to prepare for school, if she did not prepare herself early sometimes she was always late for school because of the long distance.
“We have to wait for public transportation around 12:20 because the journey from home to school takes 30 minutes, if we are late waiting for public transportation then we will also be late arriving at school and our teachers will give punishments such as kneeling, but if we want to be better people then we have to try hard.” She added.
She emphasized that during this time she had been following the learning process even though it was a long distance, but this was a lesson for her, because she wanted to become a more mature person and must be able to accept challenges in order to achieve a good future.
To explain better that the money she had been using for school sometimes she could spend around 25 USD and more every month, but in the future if she wanted to be a good person she had to try hard to face obstacles such as she had to divide her time to help her parents and go to school.
Reported by : Nelfiano
Picture by : Nelfiano