Introduction       

Indonesia is an archipelagic country with approximately 17,504 islands and more than 81,000 km of coastline. This makes many parts of Indonesia a coastal area. As a coastal area, Indonesia is one of the world’s richest areas in biodiversity in coral reef fish as well as economic potency such as fishery, petroleum and gas resources, beaches for recreation, tourism, residential and industrial purposes. Of course, with the wide zone of water, the length of the coastline and the number of such large islands, Indonesia naturally inherits a wealth of abundant marine resource. Based on the condition, there are great opportunity for coastal fisheries development in Indonesia. The fisheries development has objectives for increasing of people earning and job opportunity.

          The population of Indonesia according to the 2020 national census was 270.2 million, the fourth largest in the world. About 64% of Indonesian people live in and around the coastal areas.  So, it is not surprising that most of the activities and daily activities are always related to the existence of coastal and marine resources in the vicinity. However, the quality of life in most of the coastal community in Indonesia is unpromising, below the national poverty line. Poverty that occurs on the coastal communities is caused by, among others, low education, economic access, and government policies that are less in favor of fishing communities.

          One way to break the chain of poverty in coastal areas is to increase education as indicated by Gonzalez et. al (2020)⁽¹⁾ that Community-based Environmental Education is recognized as a powerful tool for contributing the solution of socio-environmental problems in the coastal zones. More over the education would enhance the awareness to improve the quality of life in coastal areas. Therefore, the government has to provide educational services that accommodate the needs and lifestyle of the fishing community.

          The objective of this program is to provide a breakthrough of educational services in coastal communities for school-age children at the basic education level (elementary and secondary). This education service is expected to support and equip them with relevant knowledge, skills and character in coastal communities, so that they will be able to develop coastal potential for sustainable improvement of community welfare.

Related Education in Indonesia.      

          In Indonesia, nine year compulsory education has been established by the government since 2008. However, there are still many children in coastal areas who have not been able to complete the compulsory education program (Purnawinanrni, 2020) ⁽²⁾. As stated in the Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional No. 20/2003, the national education must be able to guarantee equal distribution of educational opportunities, improve quality as well as the relevance and efficiency of education management to face challenges in accordance with the changing demands of local, national, and global life so that education reform is needed in a planned, directed, and sustainable manner.

          The issue of equal access and quality becomes a challenge for Indonesia, because of the geographical condition consisting of an archipelago, with a variety of people’s livelihoods. This condition has an impact on the different needs for education services. One of the community groups that have specific livelihoods and special educational service needs is the coastal community. However, in designing education services the government has not accommodated the educational needs of coastal children in developing knowledge and skills that are in accordance with their environmental conditions.

          Many schools in coastal areas in Indonesia face specific challenges in field of socio economic culture. As a result, most of children across large swathes of coast experience many educational issues such as drop out, uncompleted nine year compulsory education. Besides, not every coastal student received appropriate skills.

Challenges in Establishing Coastal Education.

          In general, many schools in coastal areas appear to face continuing challenges in education that impact on performance. The challenges are related to geographical, socio economic and cultural factors which are combination of the followings:

1. Lack of educational awareness. Coastal people think that without education they can live and only by fishing as much as possible they could become wealth, education is not important. The fishermen often take their sons to the sea more than order them to school. This resulted in a lack of equal access to education for the children. In areas with high unemployment rates that sometimes last for generations, many families fail to see the importance of education. This is the phenomena of lack educational awareness.   
2. Unsuitable school hours to fishing time. It is often that the fishing time does not match the school hours that has been routinely scheduled. Both parents and children are more concerned with fishing than going to school. Therefore, it is not easy to manage student activity at schools in coastal community.
3. Low motivation of children towards education. It is challenging to encourage children participate in school activity due to lack of motivation and bad experiences of family members at school. The coastal children who often go fishing with parents, earn and enjoy having money which discourage them to schools. In turns this habits cause low motivation to study back at school.
4. Geographical Conditions. Archipelagic coastal areas have diverse geographical conditions, among others, due to the presence of rivers, hills, mountains and forests causing limited public access, lack of transportation and communication infrastructure. This greatly affects education in the area including students, teachers and parents. Hence, many children are unable to complete the nine year compulsory education.
5. Relevant education in coastal areas. Boys and girls in coastal areas do not have a conducive educational environment that is relevant to their socio-economic and cultural conditions. The boys since their childhood have been accustomed to fishing activities with their parents. Girls are also used to helping their parents process or market fishing catch. However, the formal schools they attend do not provide the knowledge and skills that support the activities of fishermen lives. Therefore, educational services that are relevant to the needs of developing a sustainable quality of life for them as fishing communities are required. In this case, it is necessary to develop a marine based curriculum with the support of adequate educators.

          In an effort to improve access to education for children in Indonesia, the government has issued an education system called Special Service Education (Pendidikan Layanan Khusus, PLK) through Permendikbud No. 72 of 2013 which was changed to No. 67 of 2016. The purpose of implementing such education is to provide access to education for students so that their rights to education is fulfilled. Special Service Education includes Sekolah Kecil (small school), Sekolah Terbuka (open school), Sekolah Darurat (emergency school), Sekolah Terintegrasi (integrated school). However, it is very unfortunate that special education services do not provide with expected results of coastal community. This due to several factors such as unsuitable school hours to fishing time and relevant education for coastal community. Therefore, the special education service has not yet answered the needs of coastal education. Coastal populations simply have fewer choices than many others. The sea as community rich resources has turned from the basis of local wealth to a barrier that restricts opportunity.

     In line with the above discussion, it is proposed to establish coastal community schooling to provide educational breakthrough in Indonesia education system.