School bodies to produce reports

Leony Aurora , Jakarta

The Jakarta Middle and Higher Education Agency has set a deadline of Aug. 21 for state senior high schools and vocational schools to discuss and draw up their financial reports for the academic year 2004/2005.

This year's report guidelines, issued by the agency on Monday, say that school committees should monitor and evaluate the reports every month, while the agency's municipality offices evaluate quarterly and the agency itself each semester.

Copies of the reports must be filed as a public record with the agency, its municipality offices and school committees.

"The best thing will be to have them audited by public accountants," said agency head Margani Mustar. This was necessary as the reports included funds derived from parents and hence the public, he said.

As public accountants were expensive, the agency would try to find some who would audit free of charge, Margani added.

Schools must work with school committees to draw up the financial reports. The committees will hold a meeting with parents to discuss the reports and set one-off donation and monthly fees.

City Council Commission E suggested last week that school committees be dissolved as they imposed exorbitant school fees and failed to consider parents' financial capability.

Research by Indonesian Corruption Watch, carried out among parents and teachers from 50 elementary schools in Jakarta, revealed earlier this year that parents were usually left in the dark about budget components and did not supervise the use of the funds. Only 21.6 percent of parents knew about school committees.

The committees were established in compliance with Law No. 20/2003 on the national education system, which stipulates that education is not the sole responsibility of the government, but also of parents and society.

Although the agency has said that funds derived from parents should not be used for development, such as building new classrooms or repairing old ones, the guidelines do not state that explicitly.

Margani said if several parents wanted to fund the construction of, say, a mosque, they could do so. "As long as high-cost projects are not imposed on all parents, it's OK."

The limit to such costs would depend on each school, he added. "In SMA 8 state senior high school, a one-off donation of Rp 6 million (US$665.19) will be accepted by most parents with little objection. In other schools, parents might not be able to afford Rp 600,000."

Unlike last year, the agency did not set a limit on the amount involved in the reports this academic year. In the 2003/2004 reports, the funds collected could not exceed those of the previous year.

"Make it (the financial report) optimal and efficient. It should not be a demands list, but a needs-based list," said Margani.