Lampung schools still charging extra fees
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung
Yuntardi was confused when his daughter Sekar, a first grade elementary pupil, asked him to register her in a school tennis course.
It's not that he did not have Rp 250,000 (US$25) to sign up for the course, but rather because he knew that the Lampung National Education Office has forbidden schools from collecting money from parents as they have already received school operational funds.
"The teacher says that I won't get into second grade if I don't take the course," the pupil at SDN 2 Rawalaut elementary school in Bandarlampung said.
The 40-year-old Lampung TV journalist, who is active on the school committee and is also an overseer for student welfare fund distribution, became even more concerned when his daughter told him she also had to buy school textbooks for between Rp 30,000 and Rp 40,000 each for her extracurricular learning activities.
"After the school operational funds are distributed, the school still wants to get additional funds by collecting fees under the excuse of supporting learning activities, even though the operational funds are actually already enough to finance these activities," Yuntardi said.
Another parent, construction worker Ahmad Sanusi, did not know how he was going to come up with Rp 150,000 that his son needed to buy school textbooks.
When his son registered at SD Gulak-Galik elementary school in Telukbetung Utara, Bandarlampung in July, he paid Rp 300,000 for two school uniforms, a sport uniform and several textbooks.
"I heard the school had received school operational funds and that the school would be free. How come the school still asks for money?" said Sanusi.
Principal of SDN Rawalaut, Nusyirwan Zakki, said the school had not yet received school operational funds and did not obligate first graders to take tennis lessons.
He also rejected claims that the school was making illegal collections of money from students. "All of the collections are for the students' own benefit," he said.
According to coordinator of People's Coalition for Education, Gino Vanollie, schools in Lampung received funds worth up to Rp 700 billion from August to December this year.
The funds, he added, came from the State Budget and the Lampung provincial budget. The money has to be used to finance school operations, and excluded salaries for teachers and school staff.
The Rp 700 billion in funds includes Rp 190 billion for school operations, Rp 10.4 billion for financial assistance to students, and Rp 479.5 billion to assist children from poor families.
In practice, every student will receive Rp 235,000 a year for elementary school, Rp 324,000 a year for junior high school and Rp 780,000 a year for senior high school.
Poor students will receive further assistance worth Rp 25,000 per month for elementary school, Rp 65,000 for junior high school and Rp 120,000 for senior high school.
Gino said the amount of school operational funds were more than enough to finance the education of 744,681 elementary school students, 539,291 junior high school students and 224,359 senior high school students in Lampung.
"The funds should be used to improve education quality. For an elementary school with a tuition fee of around Rp 12,000 per month for each student, the funds are more than enough to cover all the school's need, and there's no reason to collect more money from students," Gino said.
The funds are intended for all students without consideration of their parents' economic status or the schools' status, or whether they are state or private schools.
Nationwide, Rp 5.6 trillion will be distributed to the education sector. From this amount, Rp 1.4 trillion has been allocated in the 2005 State Budget and the remaining Rp 4.2 trillion will be distributed in January next year.