Education too commercialized: PDI<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Escalating school fees are threatening the
\ncountry's efforts to promote education for all, the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party (PDI) warned yesterday.<\/p>\n
Spokesman for the minority party Bambang Mintoko said the
\ngrowing tendency among urban schools to \"commercialize\" education
\nwas particularly worrying.<\/p>\n
\"The increasing educational costs that parents have to
\nshoulder will deprive more and more common people of a proper
\neducation,\" he said when presenting the party's views on the
\n1998\/2003 State Policy Guideline to a People's Consultative
\nAssembly plenary session.<\/p>\n
\"The current trend suggests that only the wealthy will soon be
\nable to afford to send their children to school,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Bambang said that super schools were so expensive that
\nparents' socioeconomic status was often the prime consideration
\nin admitting students.<\/p>\n
\"More super schools have been built. Many are becoming
\nexclusive and cater to wealthy families of certain ethnic
\nbackgrounds,\" he said in an obvious reference to people of
\nChinese descent.<\/p>\n
The PDI, which is a 1973 amalgam of nationalist and tiny
\nChristian parties, warned that such exclusiveness could spark
\nsocial envy and deepen the existing educational disparity.<\/p>\n
The government-backed Golkar faction highlighted that the
\ngovernment's nine-year mandatory education ruling had increased
\nthe proportion of elementary school graduates who continued into
\nsecondary education to 72.5 percent in 1997\/1998 from 43.4
\npercent in 1993\/1994.<\/p>\n
The government's target for the sixth Five-Year Development
\nPlan, which will end this month, was only 66.2 percent, faction
\nspokesman Fahmi Idris said.<\/p>\n
The faction also noted that over the past five years, the
\nnumber of college lecturers had increased to 127,200 from 88,700
\nfive years ago. (pan)<\/p>",
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