Govt wants university to solve crisis
JAKARTA (JP): The government has expressed serious concern over the ongoing turmoil besetting Satya Wacana Christian University, but has indicated that solving the dispute is an internal matter for the university.
"Every (private) university has its own statutes...it should solve internal squabbles according to them," Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said yesterday in a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission IX, which oversees education and religious affairs.
"Besides, every university has its own traditions...There are universities which have existed for 50 years, they should be able to solve problems on the basis of those customs," the minister added.
Wardiman said that, of the 1,159 universities in Indonesia, at least 30 were are currently embroiled in one conflict or another.
Dozens of teachers at Satya Wacana University in Salatiga, Central Java, have been on a strike over a mass dismissal of teaching staff and the election of the university rector which, they say, was "undemocratic".
The university's management has dismissed more than a dozen senior lecturers for demanding the reinstatement of scholar Arief Budiman, dismissed last year, as well as new elections to the rectorship.
Despite ongoing staff and student protests, Rector John JOI Ihalaw has sought to proceed with the admission of new students. However, seven of the university's eight schools have refused to admit new students.
"There are some people involved in the conflict who are stubborn," Wardiman said, without naming any person or group. "But we can't force them (to end the dispute)."
Another major focus of yesterday's hearing were the allegations of manipulation of the final exam results of elementary school students.
Seven of the 16 legislators who spoke asked the minister about the reported manipulation of the students' final scores.
Wardiman said that he was still waiting for formal reports to be lodged with his office. Only then would he assign officials to handle the case and take action against anyone found to have been involved in the manipulation of results, he said.
"We will punish them," he added.
"The problem occurs because of the limited number of junior and senior high schools compared with the number of (elementary school) students graduating," he said.
"A long-term solution would be to establish more schools," the minister said, without elaborating.
Dozens of parents from 18 elementary schools in Bandung, West Java, recently complained to the Legal Aid Foundation that their children's final scores had been tampered with by corrupt teachers.
The parents claimed that teachers were "selling" improved scores for between Rp 250,000 (US$112) and Rp 400,000. (swe)