Govt plans to demote four school principals

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is keeping its promise of taking punitive measures against school headmasters charging parents fees for various reasons without the city's consent.

The head of the city office of education and culture, Alwi Nurdin, said Saturday that four public school principals would be demoted to ordinary teachers.

He said they created illegal fees or charged compulsory contributions higher than levels the government had set.

The disciplinary move will be taken in response to parent complaints about the fees which they said were unduly adding to their financial burdens during times of economic crisis.

Alwi refused to reveal the principals' names or their schools.

"The office will summon and tell them they will become ordinary teachers," he said.

He said the three junior high school administrators and a senior high school principal had asked students to pay Rp 120,000 for a compulsory contribution, far higher than the official rate of Rp 33,500 for junior high school students and Rp 38,500 for senior high school students.

The schools collect the contributions annually under the auspices of the Parent-Teacher Association (BP3). The money is used for, among other things, teachers' welfare, student activities, school parks and libraries.

The office recently circulated a notice stipulating the maximum BP3 contributions for all state schools in the capital.

The decision was made based on a recommendation from Governor Sutiyoso to the office on June 25.

Alwi said that as of Friday the office had received 44 complaints from parents about illegal fees. The complaints, he said, were examined by a special team established by the office to monitor such cases.

On Friday, Alwi inspected dozens of state schools. "It's difficult for us to prove the complaints due to a lack of evidence," he said.

During the inspection, Alwi found that some schools had charged illegal fees of between Rp 1,000 and Rp 12,000 for various purposes, such as to fund student organization activities.

Deputy Governor for Social Welfare Affairs Djailani told reporters after opening a kite festival at the National Monument (Monas) on Saturday that schools should return the money they had charged illegally.

"There should be no more fees like those for (student) uniforms, books or donations for school buildings. Schools which have collected such fees should return the money to their students," he said. (ind)