Elite school to share facilities with public schools

Elite school to share facilities with public schools

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Located on the side of a busy road in the elite residential area
of Simprug, South Jakarta, the Bina Nusantara School was
officially opened on Friday for children from middle to high
income bracket.

However, the school -- that accommodates students from
preschool grades through to high school -- still has a social
obligation to its surrounding community.

"Bina Nusantara as part of the education system here should
give a contribution in solving educational problems," said
Margani Mustar, deputy of Jakarta's intermediate and high school
education agency.

As an international school that taught English and was also
attended by expatriates, the school has the potential to become a
cross-cultural school.

If the method combining national curriculum and international
curriculum can be well-applied, it will be possible for other
schools to also adopt the learning method.

"We will help to prepare their human resources and also share
our experiences with them," said Joel Carre, the executive
director of Binus School.

Widia Soerjaningsih, CEO of the school, said they had gathered
a reserve fund to help students from other schools who could not
afford their educational fees.

"In the meantime we don't have an internal scholarship program
for students but we provide funds to help poor children from
other schools," said Widia to The Jakarta Post.

Carre also promised that Bina Nusantara would allow students
from other schools, who were not as fortunate, to use some of the
facilities, like the library and the language laboratory.

"We are too young right now to be able to do that, but as soon
as we settle, we would welcome students from other schools and
share our facilities with them," he added.

Margani also told the Post that the city administration had
run a pilot project started in October this year to help 320
students from three schools by providing one-year scholarships.

The pilot project was aimed at schools with high dropout
rates. Margani said the administration has allocated Rp 700
million (US$82,353) for the project. The funds are disbursed
through banks to the schools' accounts.