City to exempt poor from school fees

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Elementary and junior high school fees for all students in the Seribu Islands Regency and in slum areas in the five municipalities in the capital will be waived, the city administration says.

"Parents in the Seribu Islands will not be burdened with the tuition fees as the administration will pay for all students in elementary and junior high schools in the regency," Ma'mun Amin, assistant for financial affairs to the city secretary, told the press on Wednesday.

The administration has allocated Rp 195 billion per year to cover the tuition fees for the students. Elementary school students will be given Rp 15,000 per month while those at junior high school will be given Rp 25,000 per month.

There are 14 elementary schools and three junior high schools with a total of 3,000 students in the island regency.

In Jakarta, the tuition fee will be given only to students in public schools in slum areas.

"We will ask the schools who receive the money not to ask for any money from the parents," Ma'mun said.

All schools eligible to waive tuition fees would be listed by the City Education Agency.

Ma'mun said the money would not be given directly to the students as it would be to complicated administratively.

Poor people whose children went to schools outside the slum areas would not be eligible for the money.

In Indonesia children are required to attend school for at least nine-years, but the policy is not effective as costs prohibit many parents from sending their children to school.

Ma'mun said that it had not been able to remove all the tuition fees because of financial constrains.

He said more than Rp 2 trillion was needed to cover all of the tuition fees.