'Free schooling for children would be good news indeed'

Not all state schools, some of them the popular ones, are impressed with the Jakarta administration's policy to provide free education for all children. Arguing that the money given by the administration was not sufficient to cover the school expenses, they want more money, and so will continue to collect it from students. The Jakarta Post asked residents about their opinions on the issue.

Rasyid, 36, is a resident of Cipulir subdistrict in South Jakarta. He works as a security guard with a private company in Grogol, West Jakarta:

It is really good news if the city administration really wants to begin free schooling for students of elementary and junior high schools. It will help low-income families, who are burdened with various school expenses.

But I have heard about free tuition for elementary schools for several years. But in reality, the school that my children go to still takes money from us for extracurricular programs and other expenses.

We hope that this year, the city administration will make it free for all students in elementary and junior high schools. If the plan is really realized, we will use the money for buying textbooks for our children.

The recent price increase has affected us very much because spending for our daily transportation from my house to the work place has almost doubled. Meanwhile, my salary has not changed.

Pardi, 40, lives in Palmerah subdistrict, West Jakarta. He has two children in elementary school. He works as a public minivan driver:

Frankly, I am pessimistic that there will be truly free schooling next year because the government made similar announcements years ago.

The school that our children go to indeed has free tuition. But the school still collects money from us for school committees and various other activities. So what is the difference? We still spend a lot of money for the education of our children.

But if the city administration really wants to provide free schooling, I will express my gratitude because such a policy would be very helpful for low-income families like us.

We can allocate tuition money for other necessities like private courses for my child, who is now in the sixth grade, so that she will have good grades.

-- The Jakarta Post