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.