Dedi Mulyadi Seeks to Secure Education Rights for Poor Students Excluded from SPMB

Bandung (ANTARA) - West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi has admitted he is facing a major dilemma in securing education rights for tens to hundreds of thousands of underprivileged students who have been excluded from the 2026 New Student Admission System (SPMB) for state schools due to a lack of capacity. Governor Dedi Mulyadi said he had initially planned to increase the number of study groups (rombel) in state schools, but the plan was scrapped following objections from several private school foundations. On the other hand, many private school foundations appear reluctant to accept the financing cooperation offered by the West Java Provincial Government. “The governor should not be put in a dilemma. On one hand, adding study groups in state schools is not allowed, but on the other hand, private schools are unwilling to accept the cooperation with the budget offered,” Dedi Mulyadi said in a statement in Bandung on Monday. The West Java Provincial Government has prepared a fiscal stimulus scheme in the form of education fee assistance amounting to Rp2.7 million per student in the first year as compensation for absorbing these underprivileged students. This subsidy is expected to be agreed upon soon by the foundations. According to Dedi, tactical collaboration between the West Java Provincial Government and the private sector is an absolute instrument to break the chain of children dropping out of school at the senior high school (SMA) and vocational high school (SMK) levels. Without intervention and flexibility from private schools, he said, children from underprivileged families who fail to enter state schools will certainly lose their future. Based on sociological mapping conducted by the West Java Provincial Government, groups from the affluent economic class have already firmly decided to register independently at private schools. Meanwhile, other students who meet the 2026 SPMB criteria will be distributed to available state schools. Therefore, the remaining empty quotas in partner private schools are expected to be prioritised for absorbing underprivileged students to ensure the principle of social justice in the education sector.