City stops registration fees in schools

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration announced on Tuesday its new policy of exempting all students of state junior and senior high schools from paying registration fees beginning this year.

Speaking in a hearing with City Council Commission E for social welfare affairs, head of the Jakarta Education Agency Sukesti Martono said that the city would disburse Rp 3 billion (US$333,333) to cover the registration fees of all schools.

He claimed the subsidization of registration fees -- together with the abolition of examination fees that was enforced this year -- was aimed at helping the students' parents.

"We initiated these two programs to help the students' parents. Both will be covered by the 2002 city budget," Sukesti said in the hearing.

Elementary school students entering school are no longer required to pay registration fees as of three years ago but new students of junior and senior high schools were still required to pay Rp 6,000 and Rp 8,000 respectively for registration forms last year.

Besides abolishing the registration fees, the city administration also subsidized examination fees this year. It disbursed Rp 10.4 billion for the examination which started earlier this month.

However, the amount allocated is still small when compared with the city budget which amounted Rp 9.3 trillion this year.

Sukesti said, however, the city administration could not require schools to scrap the entrance fee, which could amount to millions of rupiah in certain popular schools.

He claimed the entrance fee was needed by the schools for their own needs since the administration only paid teachers' salaries and the cost of building maintenance.

"If they want to install air-conditioners in their classrooms, for example, they could use the entrance fee," Sukesti said.

He asked the schools to discuss the entrance fee with the students' parents before deciding the amount which should be paid.

He said the entrance fee should also be discussed with the parents two weeks after the students entered the classes, not when registering at the schools.

"The schools cannot expel students whose parents cannot pay the entrance fee. The school' principals will be fired if they are found to have forced parents to pay the fees," he said.

Meanwhile Commission E chairwoman Wasilah Sutrisno urged the agency to set a regulation on a maximum entrance fee which could be applied for all schools.

"We regret that the agency cannot set a maximum entrance fee," Wasilah said.

In the past, parents were required to state their readiness to donate to the schools. The students, whose parents were ready to pay millions of rupiah, would be accepted by the schools.

It is predicted some 119,000 junior high school graduates will enter state high schools, while 138,000 elementary school graduates will enter the state junior high schools, and some 150,000 new students will enter state elementary schools in July this year.