Many state junior high schools desks left vacant<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Some state junior high schools in Jakarta have
\ndecided not to fill some of their places despite being
\noversubscribed.<\/p>\n
The chief of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Education
\nand Culture, Sri Sudono Soemarto, said over the weekend that the
\ndecision was taken as many applicants' national final exams
\ngrades did not meet the schools' minimum requirements.<\/p>\n
State Junior High School 80 (SMPN 80) has 28 unfilled places,
\nfollowed by SMPN 256 with 16, SMPN 90 with 15, SMPN 204 and SMPN
\n281 both with 12, SMPN 7 with 11, SMPN 144 with seven, SMPN 138
\nand SMPN 97 both with five, and SMPN 44 with four, he said.<\/p>\n
"The decision to leave the places vacant was taken Thursday
\nafter considering that the new school year starts on Monday
\n(today)," Sri Soedono said.<\/p>\n
A total of 161,497 junior high school students, 68,530 senior
\nhigh school students and 63,702 vocational high school students
\nsat the national final exams in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The number who passed was 161,311 junior high school students,
\n68,228 senior high school students and 63,309 students from
\nvocational high schools, he said.<\/p>\n
"Of that number 134,546 students registered for admission at
\nstate junior high schools, 76,208 students at state senior high
\nschools and 77,964 students at state vocational schools," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
State junior high schools can only accommodate 92,255 students
\nhowever (68 percent of the applicants), state senior high schools
\n36,461 students (47.8 percent) and vocational high schools 13,843
\nstudents (14.35 percent).<\/p>\n
Sri Sudono said that many students with good academic
\nqualifications preferred to register at state schools because of
\nthe much lower fees than at private schools.<\/p>\n
State schools also manage to provide good quality education
\nand good opportunities to gain access to other good schools, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The head of administrative affairs at the ministry's Jakarta
\noffice, Alwi Nurdin, said that six cases of imposing additional
\nschool fees were being investigated.<\/p>\n
He did not name the schools involved and just said that 362
\nstudents had complained about registration irregularities to the
\nMinistry of Education and Culture's city office.<\/p>\n
He also expressed regret over the registration computer system
\nmalfunctioning.<\/p>\n
Alwi said that his office was open for complaints from parents
\nwhose children were mistakenly included in schools they did not
\nchoose.<\/p>\n
"Frankly speaking, as under the new computerized system
\nthousands of students had to be processed, human errors were
\nunavoidable," he added. (01\/hhr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/many-state-junior-high-schools-desks-left-vacant-1447893297",
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