Government starts phasing in free schooling scheme

JAKARTA (JP): With the start of the new school year this week, the government has begun to phase in the free schooling program at the junior high school level, mindful that there will be difficulties due to budget constraints.

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro has issued decree no. 151/1994, freeing parents from the obligation to pay for admission and monthly tuition fees for the schooling of their children at junior high schools.

State primary schools are technically free but in practice parents are still expected to make various "contributions", in most cases linked to their level of income.

Under the new decree, whose existence was only made public yesterday, the government will subsidize the cost of junior high schools by giving out funds from the state budget.

The decree, however, also permits school administrators to solicit funds from parent-teacher associations, voluntary donors and from the public.

The free schooling scheme is being launched as part of the new, expanded, nine-year compulsory education program which begins this year. Under the program, all children from six years above must attend the first six primary education and three years of junior high schools.

Yesterday, a team from the Jakarta Education and Culture Office visited a number of junior high schools to popularize the free school scheme and learn of possible obstacles.

The team, accompanied by journalists, visited SMIP, the state- run tourism high school, the SMA 54 high school, and the SMP3 junior high school.

Kusnan Ismukanto, administration coordinator of the Jakarta Education and Culture office, told reporters during the visit that the decree seems like it will be difficult to implement as most schools still rely heavily on funds contributed from parents.

"Most schools still rely on funds from parent-teacher associations to run their program and build better facilities," he said. He added that tuition fees were easier to phase out because at state junior high schools they average Rp 1,500 (70 U.S. cents) a month.

Admission fees

"Most schools will also continue to charge admission fees but we've tried to keep them as low as possible," he said.

The funds from admission fees are used for orientation programs for new students and for financing the activities of the student organizations, Kusnan said.

The entrance fee averages Rp 35,000 ($15) for junior high school and Rp 40,000 for high school students.

Head of the planning section of the Jakarta Education and Culture Office, Ending Karnadi, said during the tour yesterday that the city authorities have expanded the number of seats at junior high schools in Jakarta by 10 percent to accommodate the increasing number of applicants.

This year, a total of 135,332 people applied for admission at state junior high schools in Jakarta but only 95,780 were accommodated.

To overcome the shortage, the education authorities plan to make some of the existing primary school buildings work double shifts, allowing junior high schools to use the facility in the afternoon.

Ending said the authorities have also set up four 'open- schools' for poor children at Jakarta's respective mayoralties.

These schools are funded by state budget.

"They will study by using module systems. They will be given books to read and homework. Then, they will ask questions about anything they don't understand in class, which is guided by tutors. The class will be held twice a week," he said. (prs)