Parents demand lower admission fees

Parents demand lower admission fees

TANGERANG: Some 300 parents of high school students
demonstrated on Wednesday in front of the Tangerang City Council,
demanding transparency and lower fee in the admission process at
state high schools SMUN 2 and SMUN 5.

Indriawati, the mother of a high school student, questioned
the transparency of the admission process at SMUN 2, given that
the school took less than 24 hours to admit 399 out of 1,400 test
participants.

The 399 students were admitted to the high school without any
details of their rankings in the admissions test, Indriawati,
whose son failed the test, said.

One father, Ismatullah, was there to protest the high
admission fee at SMUN 5, which is requiring the parents of 396
newly admitted students to pay a "development donation" of Rp 2
million (US$243.90) each.

The spokesman for the council's Commission E for people's
welfare, Abbas Sunarya, said the commission would hold a hearing
with the principals of both schools and the parents. -- JP