School fees to be standardized

Leony Aurora, Jakarta

A draft of a bylaw on education, which will standardize parents' contribution to schools and set a maximum permissible amount, is being prepared by community and education leaders.

Councillor Syamsidar Siregar of Commission E overseeing social welfare said on Tuesday in a panel discussion on the role of school committees that the bylaw would also stipulate teachers' rights, student classification (based on their economic situations) and punishment for violations.

"This (bylaw) is urgent, so we don't have to go through this experience year after year," she added.

The preliminary draft bylaw would be deliberated upon by the next council, said Syamsidar, who has been reelected for the period of 2004/2009.

The council proposed last year that the administration set a ceiling for parents' contribution.

Each year, the months of July and August are marked by many parents lodging complaints over the high fees of education.

At each school the process is similar. The administrators draw up their financial reports with school committees -- most members are parents -- at the start of the academic year and later finalize it in a meeting with all parents to determine the fee. Ideally, no fees are to be paid until the meetings are completed, by Aug. 21 latest.

Several committee heads, who attended the discussion, denied allegations of exorbitant fees imposed on parents, calling it a polemic and saying it had been blown out of proportion by the media without accurate cross-checks.

Syamsidar said there was a lack of communication between parties involved and that the budgets were not transparent.

The agency has stipulated that schools cannot charge fees for maintenance and development, including building new classrooms or repairing old ones. It also made clear that no students should have to drop out because they cannot afford tuition.

School committees said they had implemented the policy. "The needy do not have to pay at our school," claimed Azhar Muchlis of SMA 8 public high school committee.

Syamsidar emphasized that the tuition fees should not be equal for all schools. "There should be categories (determined) for rich, middle and poor people," she added.