Free Ebtanas for elementary, junior high school students

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of National Education has allotted Rp 161 billion (US$16.1 million) to pay the National Examination (Ebtanas) fees for elementary and junior high school students, the ministry announced on Wednesday.

"The funds are ready to be disbursed. The parents and students no longer have to worry about the fees or any other levies.

"We will hold a meeting on March 22 to coordinate the matter with related institutions, especially local administrations' offices of education since they will be in charge with regional autonomy," Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin said.

The ministry's data for 2001 shows there are a total of 4,191,298 elementary school students who will take the National Examination and 2,784,595 junior high school students taking the exam, which is usually given in May.

Previously, the Ebtanas fee for elementary and junior high school students varied from between Rp 20,000 and Rp 40,000, depending on the price of the test materials and production costs in the area.

The Rp 161 billion set aside to pay the exam fees will cover all expenses, including printing, distribution and the honorarium given officials involved in administering the exam.

"As for high school students, the fee should be covered by the local administrations since it has been included in the General Allocation Fund," the secretary at the Directorate General for Primary and Secondary Education, Baidlowi, said in his office on Wednesday.

He also said all of the test materials and answer keys were being kept by the National Examination Center.

"The test materials will only be distributed near the date of the exam and only by appointed people in order to avoid possible leakage.

"Certain distribution arrangements also have been established for strife-torn or remote areas," Baidlowi said.

Yahya urged local governments to ensure they had adequate funds to pay the National Examination fees for the some 1.7 million high school students in each province.

"We hope that there will be no fees charged to the parents or the students. But since (the administrations) are in charge under regional autonomy, it is up to them.

"The central government can only produce policy guidelines, but basically we want the National Examination to be free for all students," Yahya said.

The minister admitted that some regions had not yet established their education offices.

"Everything is new during this era of regional autonomy and a lot of infrastructure and systems have to be adjusted," he said.

Earlier in the day, Yahya said during a hearing at the House of Representatives that his ministry was doing what it could to provide an education for children in areas hit by natural disasters and violence.

"An additional Rp 5 billion has been allotted for flood victims in Aceh and a similar amount for Irian Jaya. An ongoing alternative education scheme is being run in the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.

"We have limited funds, but we are expecting donors to help us," he said. (edt)