City bridges gap between state, private schools

City bridges gap between state, private schools

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Middle and Higher Education Agency has begun sister
school programs between state and private schools across Jakarta
in a bid to minimize the gap in quality between the two.

"Unlike state schools that are homogenous in the quality of
their education, private schools were more heterogenous. There
are those that provide very high quality education, but also
others do not," head of the Jakarta Middle and Higher Education
Agency Margani M. Mustar, claimed to The Jakarta Post on
Thursday.

As a result, that was one of the reasons why many people still
opt for a state school education, despite the limited space in
the schools, and as a consequence, higher requirements to get in,
he explained.

Beginning last year with a pilot project of three state
schools and three private schools, the sister school program was
deemed successful enough to continue with a further 50 state and
private schools this year. Margani did not mention the names of
the schools.

"The schools signed an agreement last month for cooperation,
such as the sharing of teaching methods and experiences between
teachers and the borrowing of teaching aids," Margani said.

He said that it was hoped that after first three months of the
program, the private schools would show a marked improvement in
their educational services that it would be a point of honor for
the state schools to have a private sister school.

"In time, we hope to change the public's perception of private
schools so that they would no longer look down on private
schools," Margani said.

As a form of public participation, private schools play a
vital role in providing education when state schools could no
longer accommodate students.

Data shows that private schools in Jakarta have progressively
increased in number along with the level of education they
provide.

In 2004 there were 2,280 state elementary schools in the city
compared to 708 private elementary schools, but at junior high
school level the number is 118 state schools and 570 private.

At the high school level, there were 116 state high schools
compared to 381 private high schools, and 60 state vocational
high school compared to 522 private vocational school.

However, compared to the number of students, the gap between
state and private schools is not so high, Margani said, citing
94,210 students in state high schools compared to 98,253 students
in private high schools.

"Meaning that the few state schools have larger capacity than
the private schools, which are generally small in size," he
explained.

However, since the private schools rely heavily on students as
a source of income, its operation was also dependent on the
people's social economic condition.

"Private schools would be in sound condition if the people's
social economic situation is good. Such as it is, we need also to
help them survive," Margani said, explaining that the Agency had
helped private schools with teacher's upgrading and school
management, and by providing honorary teachers at private
schools.

"In other provinces, honorary teachers are available only to
state schools, only in Jakarta they made available to private
schools," he said.