Parents Flock to West Jakarta SPMB Post Over Registration Hurdles

Jakarta - Parents of prospective students crowded the Student Admission Selection (SPMB) service post opened by the West Jakarta Region II Education Sub-Department at SMA 78, Palmerah, to report registration difficulties. Most of the reported issues relate to registration accounts, such as forgotten passwords, difficulties creating SPMB accounts, and inactive Population Registry Numbers (NIK) because the students had recently moved domicile. “Last month I arranged a domicile move from Cakung to Kebon Jeruk. Yesterday, when I wanted to register for a school in Kebon Jeruk, my child’s NIK was still registered at the old address. Yet, to register for school now, it must match the domicile,” said one parent, Intan (43), while lodging a complaint at the West Jakarta SPMB service post on Thursday. When reporting her issue, Intan was informed that a new NIK can only be used for school registration one year after it is created. “They said it only becomes active a year after we process it. If it has not been a year, it is still registered at the old address. So, if my child wants to register, they must register in Cakung, at my old address, and cannot register in Kebon Jeruk because it must match the domicile,” she said. According to Intan, it is impossible for her child, who is about to enter primary school, to attend school far from their current residence, so she will be forced to enrol her child in a private school. Meanwhile, the Head of the West Jakarta Region II Education Sub-Department, Muhammad Arif Rachman, confirmed that the implementation of the Student Admission Selection (SPMB) system for the 2026/2027 academic year is proceeding in accordance with DKI Jakarta Governor’s Decree Number 238 of 2026 concerning Technical Guidelines for New Student Admission. Arif said this year’s SPMB provides four admission pathways: achievement, affirmation, domicile, and mutation. He explained that the achievement pathway is intended for prospective students at the junior high, senior high, and vocational school levels who have academic or non-academic accomplishments. For the primary school level, the available pathways include affirmation, mutation, and domicile. After the achievement pathway stage is completed, the process continues in stages through the affirmation, domicile, and finally the mutation pathway. “The results of the achievement pathway selection will be announced on 18 June 2026, followed by the re-registration process on 19-20 June 2026,” he said. According to him, since registration for the achievement pathway opened on 15 June, public enthusiasm has been quite high, resulting in hundreds of reports regarding registration difficulties. “For face-to-face services, the number of complaints received reached 140 cases, all of which were handled by operator staff. In addition, we also received around 60 complaints via the call centre and 340 complaints via WhatsApp,” said Arif.