Rethinking tuition fees

Rethinking tuition fees

During the recent new school year, we read two interesting but
converse reports. The first was news about an outstanding
achievement of five Indonesian students at the International
Physics Olympiad in South Korea.

While we are glad to hear news about the success of the five
high school students in the world forum, we are sad to read the
disheartening reports that many parents could not afford to put
their children in the right schools.

Though an old and classic issue, it has complicated the
already gloomy picture of our education system, namely low
standards, the high number of drop-outs and a huge disparity in
education quality between one area and another.

Even entering a government school is not as easy for many
children now as it was 20 years ago. Being smart is not enough to
get a seat as public schools charge various fees, the cumulative
amount of which is high.

In a welcome sign, public high schools in the suburbs and
inner cities have adopted a transparent and credible admission
process, but this does not mean the door is open for the
aspirants. The last and no less important requirement is money.

Many top public schools in Jakarta -- junior and senior high
schools -- set admission fees ranging from Rp 2 million (US$220)
to Rp 8 million, compared to between Rp 8 million and Rp 20
million fees for private schools. Popular junior and senior high
schools in Depok, a suburb south of Jakarta, charge Rp 1.5
million to Rp 2.5 million for each new student. But in actuality
the cost for parents is almost double that as they have to buy
new text books and uniforms.

The Ministry of National Education said recently 12 million of
around 52 million students of elementary, junior high and senior
high schools in the country had problems in paying admission and
tuition fees.

So far the government has provided scholarships for only 8.1
million students. The budgetary problems, which occurred after
the 1998 crisis, have also been blamed for the poor condition of
50 percent of 500,000 classrooms at the public elementary schools
in the country.

The tuition fees at Indonesian public schools is low compared
to other countries, but it is extremely high for Indonesians amid
abject poverty, unemployment and the declining value of the
rupiah against the U.S. dollar.

Private schools are often out of the question for many people
of the low and middle-income groups.

In order to help solve the budgetary problems, the Ministry of
National Education issued Decree No. 044/2002 on the
establishment of education councils and school committees. Both
the council and the committee are independent bodies, set up to
give advice and support to the government on education as well as
to monitor education programs in their respective areas.

Article 6 of the decree stipulates that the committee help the
government gather funds to finance the operation of the schools.

In middle-class areas in big cities and suburbs where people's
income and awareness about the importance of education is higher,
the response of the public to the government's appeal has been
positive. Most top public schools saw the public funds cover more
than 90 percent of the school budget.

The increase in the public's share in the public school budget
is favorable news, but the reliance on private individuals is not
without risk as it can marginalize the poor, who are still
dependent on public schools.

If this continues to happen the mission of public schools of
equality and democratization will suffer.

There must be a fair share between the public and the
government in school funding. In this regard school committees
should be given the power to draft a school's budget with the
school management and supervise the implementation to minimize
inefficiency and corruption.

Needless to say that the country is still mired in crisis, but
it is high time for the government to gradually raise the budget
for education from the current 3.49 percent to a 20 percent
ceiling as stipulated in the Constitution.

Nine years of mandatory education launched by the government
in 1994 also necessitates that the state allocate more funds for
education.

If the state can spend Rp 144.5 trillion for Bank Indonesia
liquidity support loans (BLBI) to salvage banks owned by corrupt
tycoons, why can it not make the same effort for education if we
really care about human resources development.