Officials defend action against vocational scholl

JAKARTA (JP): A senior official denied yesterday that his office had not informed 21 vocational schools of poor performance before asking them to stop receiving new students this year.

Alwi Nurdin, the head of administration affairs at the Ministry of Education and Culture city office, assured that proper procedures had been taken in order to prevent the public from being victims of vocational schools that lacked ministry requirements.

Alwi said the office issued on June 9 a list of vocational schools that had failed to comply with major requirements in education, such as adequate educational facilities and a minimum number of permanent teachers.

At the end of last year, 65 vocational schools were told to improve their performance, Alwi said.

"From that figure, 21 schools were reprimanded last month by the office for poor management," he said.

So far none of the schools have shown any intention of improving, he said after accompanying Minister Wardiman Djojonegoro on an inspection of the first day of the state university entrance exam.

Some school management representatives had said they had yet to receive warning letters and said the ministry had no right to close their schools.

George S. Watutman, headmaster of SMIP Pernas, said school was running as usual because officials at the city office had promised to grant him an operation permit this month.

"It's only the school's hotel section that has not received a permit, so we've transferred students of the section to another school in Rawamangun, East Jakarta," Watutman said.

At STM Telkom in Klender, East Jakarta, students said they did not know of any warning to close their school.

Alwi said STM Telkom and another technical school, STM Puspitek, also in Klender, used names which could mislead people into thinking that bona fide institutions were behind them, such as state-run PT Telkom and Puspitek, the government's Center for Science and Technology Development.

"We found that the schools had no connection with either PT Telkom or Puspitek," he said.

Kasito, a city official in charge of vocational schools, said the list was issued with a message aimed at parents to be careful about enrolling their children.

Among city office findings, he said, "STM Puspitek had no drawing tables and other important apprenticeship tools, such as saws and grindstones."

In South Jakarta, schools not allowed to take in new students anymore included STM Gde Benyamin, SMEA Bina Putra Bangsa and SMEA Gde Benyamin.

In East Jakarta, schools included STM Ristek Sari Mulya, SMIP Tiara Indonesia, STM Darma Pusaka, STM Telkom, STM Cakung, SMEA Darma Pusaka, SMEA Hasyril, STM Puspitek and STM Bina Tama.

In North Jakarta, schools included SMIP Pernas, SMEA Wijaya Kusuma, SMEA Cordova, SMEA K Cahaya Kudus, SMEA Wijaya and SMEA Ganesha.

And in West Jakarta, schools that were notified were SMIP Cipta Duta Pertiwi, SMEA Tomang Raya, SMEP Mulia Bakti and SMEA Fajroel Islam. (03)