School bodies to produce reports
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.