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