Bylaw needed on textbooks

Bylaw needed on textbooks

SURABAYA: A local ordinance is needed to ensure that the
minister of national education's regulation No. 11/2005 on school
textbooks, which are supposed to be based on National Education
Standardization Board (BSNP) recommendations, will be adhered to
in the regions, an education official has said.

"The bylaw is needed because it's hard to control the schools,
to prevent the schools from forcing students to buy books that
the schools want them to buy," the director of the Surabaya
Municipal Education Agency, Sahudi, said on Friday.

Before the start of the new school year, the education agency
had instructed school principals not to force students to buy
books. The agency, he said, had recommended various books that
met the national standards.

In reality, he said, many schools in Surabaya required their
students to buy books that did not meet the required standards.

Under the ministerial regulation, principals or teachers who
forced students to buy school textbooks could be subjected to
administrative sanctions, such as being dismissed or transferred.
"But we can't take action against them as the consequences would
be severe. Like a teachers strike, for example," he said. -- JP