Schools told to discuss levies with parents

JAKARTA (JP): City councilors have asked schools to stop imposing burdensome additional costs on parents and to publicly discuss extracurricular activities before implementing them.

Chairman of Commission E for welfare affairs Soeparmo said: "Activities which require extra fees must be discussed with parents and the teachers' association".

Soeparmo was responding to news of a city education and culture office order making it compulsory for high school students in Jakarta to visit Sea World and the National Oceanography Institute.

"If it were true (that the visits were obligatory) I strongly suggest it be changed," he said.

"If it's compulsory, then the fees are supposed to be paid for from the schools' special budgets."

Saud Rachman of Commission D for development affairs said: "The visit is not part of the schools' curricula so why should it be mandatory?"

"Please don't make students the target of commercial business," he said.

He said the visits would impose a heavy financial burden on parents.

The issue was raised by parents of senior high school SMU 34 students in South Jakarta who complained that the school's headmaster, H. Subardjo, was ordering students to go on the visits.

In a letter to parents, he said that the city's education and culture office notification No. 1506/101.G/M/1996 said that the visits were a compulsory part of schools' programs.

The letter said each student must pay Rp 37,000 (US$12.75) for the visits.

One of the parents, who asked for anonymity, said it was too expensive.

Arief Rachman, an education expert and headmaster of Lab School (SMU 81) told The Jakarta Post Saturday that the issue should not be blown out of proportion.

"I haven't received the letter so I can't comment further. Basically, everything that has educational meaning must be supported, but not ordered," he said.

He said that the word 'order' was usually used by lower level officials, such as headmasters, when they wanted to implement programs suggested by the city education and culture office.

Arief also appealed to parents not to be so quick to report their concerns to the press.

"Parents should discuss it with the school first. Please help educators, don't corner us, because we just want to make learning creative and show children that the city has a lot of interesting sites to study," he said.

Rector of the Teachers' Training Institute (IKIP Jakarta), Annah Suhaenah, said that the sealife visit program was a good idea, but the approach taken to execute such programs was frequently inappropriate.

"The visit program has been happening for the last few years. It is good for the students' learning processes. Problems emerge when they deviates from their educational purpose into a recreative visit, like a picnic," she said.

Many parents rejected visit plans because they thought there was no educational value, Annah said.

"And it is a big problem when the word 'order' is sent to parents," she said.

"Why order them to go to Sea World? There are many other interesting sites in Jakarta. The fish cannot be observed and touched. So is it worth a trip?"

Annah said teachers should be ordered to help students get the maximum educational value out of the many interesting sites, including museums, National Monuments or Taman Mini.

"And they are cheaper, too."

Annah said parents and teachers should discuss planned outings at least a year ahead.

"So parents are prepared and students can save money for the trips," she said.

If trips were managed well there would be no complaints, she said. (07)