City offers free tuition for SMP 56 students

City offers free tuition for SMP 56 students

Damar Harsanto and Evi Mariani, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration has again offered students at the
disputed SMP 56 junior high school in Melawai, South Jakarta, the
opportunity to transfer to and attend the state junior high
school of their choice at no cost.

"These students said they did not have the money to pay
tuition fees (so they enrolled at SMP 56 for free). We are still
offering them the opportunity to move to any state junior high
school for free," Governor Sutiyoso said at City Hall on Tuesday.

At least 40 junior high school students began the new school
year at SMP 56 on Monday. The school's management is being funded
by non-governmental organization Government Watch, which has
provided free books and school uniforms to the students.

Sutiyoso reiterated that his administration would not
recognize the school.

"The problem is actually not about free education for
students, but it is that the school fails to meet the standards
required by the law .... It is impossible for us to give
recognition to the school," the governor said.

He warned that the students and their parents would be the
ones affected if the administration was forced to step in and
vacate the school.

"We cannot simply allow this problem to continue since we are
obliged to hand over the school to PT Tata Disantara, which has
already turned over its assets as part of a swap deal," he said.

Sutiyoso was referring to a controversial land swap deal
signed in 2000 between the Ministry of National Education and
developer Tata Disantara, which is owned by businessman and
former manpower minister Abdul Latief.

The deal involves Tata Disantara handing over two buildings in
Jeruk Purut and Bintaro, both in South Jakarta, in exchange for
the SMP 56 building in Melawai.

For the last three years, the administration has been using
the Jeruk Purut building to house the new SMP 56 school and the
Bintaro building to house the SMA 87 school. However, some
parents and teachers at SMP 56 in Melawai protested the deal and
refused to move to Jeruk Purut.

Those parents and teachers filed a civil lawsuit with the
South Jakarta District Court, but the court rejected the suit.
They are now awaiting a ruling by the Jakarta State
Administrative High Court on their appeal.

The National Commission for Child Protection has attempted to
mediate in the dispute but to no avail.

The dispute became uglier when the administration reported a
teacher at SMP 56 Melawai, Nurlaila, to the police for conducting
illegal educational activities, while the school reported several
city officials to the police for intimidation and negligence.

Detectives from the Jakarta Police continued their questioning
of Nurlaila on Tuesday as a suspect on at least three charges:
teaching without a permit, document forgery and unlawful entry.