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.