Elite schools must balance idealism and commercialism<\/p>\n
By Mochtar Buchori<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): This is a story about parents who felt betrayed
\nby a school they once trusted, and about the difficulties they
\nhad in restoring that trust. The moral of the story is that trust
\ncannot be restored by parents and teachers alone. The school
\nyaysan, or foundation, which provides the capital and early
\nrunning costs of private schools, must also be involved in this
\neffort.<\/p>\n
A young mother came to me recently expressing frustration at a
\nrise in her children's school fees. This middle class woman had
\nenrolled her children in a private school, at considerable cost
\nto her family.<\/p>\n
It is common for the initial investment capital and operating
\ncosts of many new private schools to be quoted in U.S. dollars.
\nSome private schools also hire expatriate English teachers, who
\nare usually paid in U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n
As the rupiah has weakened against the dollar, so foundations
\ncontrolling private schools have felt compelled to safeguard
\ntheir financial position, and have done so either by increasing
\nschool fees when they are charged in rupiah, or stipulating that
\nfees are paid in dollars. In the school attended by the children
\nof this young mother, fees are charged in rupiah and have been
\nincreased by as much as 40 percent.<\/p>\n
A number of parents panicked after hearing this bad news. The
\nbill paid by the lady in question for her two children's monthly
\nschool fees rose to Rp 2.52 million, and will rise again, to Rp
\n2.8 million, when her son moves up to Elementary School at the
\nend of the school year.<\/p>\n
This is stretching her family's financial means to the limit.
\nBoth she and her husband are employed by Indonesian companies and
\nare paid in rupiah. They are afraid that they will be unable to
\npay the tuition fees in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n
\"What shall I do?\" she asked, \"shall I keep my children at
\nthis expensive school and let the whole family suffer? Or shall I
\nmove them to an ordinary school and let them suffer? You know
\nwhat traditional schools are like in Indonesia. Teachers have
\nabsolute power over children and if parents question their wisdom
\non any occasion they get angry and ask them to take their
\nchildren to another school,\" she said.<\/p>\n
I could not give any real advice, only suggesting that this
\nyoung couple discuss the matter with other parents. Surely they
\nare not the only parents on the horns of this dilemma. There must
\nbe other parents facing the same situation.<\/p>\n
About two weeks later I heard that the parents did indeed have
\na meeting with other concerned parents and teachers at the
\nschool. The school principal told the parents that they too were
\nshocked and upset by the increase in fees. Domestic teachers felt
\naggrieved at what they saw as favoritism demonstrated toward
\nexpatriate teachers. Foreign teachers were upset because they
\nfelt their colleagues, the parents and students blamed them for
\nthe entire school's problems.<\/p>\n
The school management had received two very moving letters,
\none from a student in fifth grade, written in English, and
\nanother from a group of students in the junior high school
\ncomposed in beautiful Indonesian.<\/p>\n
The letter from the fifth-grader informed the principal that
\nhis mother was unable to pay the increased school fee. He pleaded
\nwith the principal not to increase fees and in return was willing
\nto clean the classroom and toilets, and study without the cooling
\ninfluence of air-conditioning. The letter from the junior high
\nschool students also asked that fees not be raised because, they
\nsaid, their parents had become poorer.<\/p>\n
The principal and teachers were entirely sympathetic to the
\nplight of families with children at the school. However, the
\ndecision to raise school fees was not theirs, but had been taken
\nby the foundation which provided the funds to set up the school.
\nThe school is effectively controlled by members of the
\nfoundation, who run it as though it were a business. The
\nprincipal recommended that the parents met with the foundation
\nboard to discuss the matter directly.<\/p>\n
The meeting took place and demonstrated starkly that an almost
\nunbridgeable gap exists between parents and members of the
\nfoundation over the most appropriate response to present economic
\ndifficulties. The teachers are caught between professional
\nloyalty and their paymasters. Wisdom is needed to find a solution
\nthat can serve the interest of all parties concerned.<\/p>\n
There are two lessons that can be taken from this story.
\nFirst, schools must strike a healthy balance between idealism and
\ncommercialism if they are to become respectable and durable
\neducational institutions. A private school can be run neither as
\na business enterprise nor a charity alone, but must combine
\nelements of both.<\/p>\n
Second, the most important question to ask in the depth of
\nthis crisis is whether we each want to merely save our own
\nrespective skins, or if we sincerely want to emerge into better
\ntimes as a whole and unified nation, wiser and bearing greater
\ndignity.<\/p>",
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