ADB gives scholarships

JAKARTA (JP): Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Tadao Chino presented on Thursday scholarships to 79 students of the Al Khairiyah Madrasah Tsanawiyah (Islamic Junior High School) in Tegal Parang, South Jakarta, as a part of a social safety net in the education sector.

Each student will receive Rp 240,000 (US$ 32) a year. The school also receives a grant of Rp 4 million per year for two years.

"Indonesia is a very great country. The scholarship is a chief component of the social safety net to alleviate the crisis impact funded by the ADB loan," Tadao said in his speech.

ADB finances the scholarship and school grant in 16 provinces while the World Bank finances the other 10 provinces.

The Al Khairiyah Foundation runs two Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (elementary school), a Madrasah Tsanawiyah (junior high school) and a Madrasah Aliyah (senior high school).

A madrasah teaches the same curriculum as other schools as required by the Ministry of National Education, in addition to enriched Islamic studies.

The foundation also received 120 scholarships for elementary school students of Rp 120,000 per year per student and a grant of Rp 2 million. Meanwhile the senior high school students received Rp 300,000 each per year and the school was allotted a grant of Rp 10 million.

"The school grant is to be used to finance school operational costs, but not any physical projects," said an officer of the scholarship project, Faisal Siddik.

Director General for Elementary and Higher Education of the Ministry of Education Indrajati Sidi told reporters that the scholarship was intended to retain the student participation levels following the economic crisis.

"So far we have retained the participation level of 70 percent and we hope to pass the barrier by one or two more digits in the near future," he said. "We also put a priority that more than 50 percent of the scholarship recipients are female students."

"We have covered scholarships for four million of the poorest students from 131,000 schools throughout the country worth more than Rp 1 trillion," he added.

Faisal said Indonesia scored among the best three countries in managing the social safety net in education.

"The success was because of our transparency in managing the project and also the involvement of the local community in deciding which schools to receive the scholarship and grant," he said. (05)