Stop illegal fees in schools: Golkar

Stop illegal fees in schools: Golkar

JAKARTA: The House of Representatives has called on schools to
stop imposing illegal fees to admit new students because the
practice had overburdened parents.

"Charging these illegal fees has been rampant during the
registration of new students in private and state-run schools
across the country. The fees must be phased out because they will
certainly overburden the parents and obstruct the education
program," Anwar Arifin, the chairman of the House's Commission VI
for education and labor, said here on Wednesday.

Arifin also called on the government to disburse to education
institutions the funds collected from the gradual phasing-out of
the oil subsidy to help schools cope with financial problems.

He said his commission would support the government's plan to
allocate 20 percent of the 2003 state budget for the education
sector to provide more subsidies for schools and to help improve
teachers' social welfare. -- Antara