'Education ministry should control content of school textbooks'

Some education experts and residents have expressed doubt over a National Education Ministry policy to standardize books by appointing eight publishers. They believe the policy is susceptible to corruption and collusion between the officials and the publishers. The Jakarta Post publishes their views.

Darmaningtyas, 40, is an education expert who lives in Salemba, Central Jakarta, with his wife and two children:

I think the policy is meant to respond to the poor publication and distribution of textbooks. In addition to the poor content, the poor marketing mechanism also tends to force the students to buy every semester.

But I regret that the selected publishers in this case are dominated by those who are close to the bureaucrats.

I assume that this kind of policy, particularly in the bidding process, is more susceptible to corruption rather than the distribution at the bookstores.

I would rather suggest that the National Education Ministry drafts the textbooks but leaves it to provincial publishers to publish and distribute as it would be more effective. Book prices will be set according to the economic realities of each area.

The Ministry should control the quality of the content, not anything else.

I'm very skeptical that the policy would avoid poor and corrupt textbook distribution. The players remain the same, after all.

Agus Listiyono, 39, is a headmaster with a national plus elementary school in Bintaro, Tangerang. He lives in Slipi, West Jakarta, with his wife and three children:

I haven't heard about the policy. However, I believe the policy will not automatically prevent collusion and nepotism.

I assume there is some form of collusion between the government and the publishers in the negotiation processes.

I am of the opinion that the distribution procedures remain prone to corruption despite the different way of textbook distribution.

As for the discount given to the schools, I guess the publishers would also give additional bribes to the government.

Anyway, I just think that it is normal that a school gets a discount on a purchase from the publishers.

With educational autonomy, every school has the right to determine what textbooks and publishers they deal with.

If the government tries to force schools to comply with the standardization process, it will mean that the policy violates autonomy.

It would be far better if there was an independent institution to set criteria for school textbooks. It is supposed to be a transparent process.

Otherwise, I am skeptical that education quality will improve as the bureaucracy continues to intervene in business here.

Yeny, 38, is an employee at a private bank in Central Jakarta. She lives in Depok with her husband and four children:

I have not heard anything about the new education policy from the government, particularly the textbook provision for elementary students. But I would agree provided that the policy really helps ease the burden of parents.

This school year I have spent more or less Rp 400,000 (US$47) for the textbooks and Rp 120,000 a month for school tuition. It is really burdensome if every semester, students are supposed to use new textbooks for the same subjects.

I believe elementary education now is very expensive. Every thing at school is measured by money. Even when I moved my daughter from her previous school in Jakarta to this new school, I had to pay around Rp 2 million.

-- Leo Wahyudi S.