City stops registration fees in schools

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.