Students to pay lower tuition fees
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Elementary and junior high school students who are from low- income families will pay lower school fees as of January as the city administration and central government plan to subsidize their education.
The subsidy from the administration will total 520 billion (US$50 million), while the central government has earmarked Rp 107.9 billion as part of its commitment to improving the welfare of the city's poor made after the fuel price increase.
Deputy speaker of the City Council Achmad Heriyawan said here on Wednesday that the council's budgetary team was finalizing the allocation of the subsidy given to elementary schools and junior high schools for the 2006 budget.
"The allocations we have discussed are almost final. But, there is the possibility that the allocations will be higher than the current budget for education," said Heriyawan, who is also a member of City Council's budgetary commission, on Wednesday.
He estimated that the assistance given to every elementary school student from a low-income family would amount to Rp 69,500 per month, or Rp 835,000 per year. The figure is much higher than the allocation for this year's subsidy of Rp 19,000 a month, or Rp 235,000 a year.
Junior high school students from low-income families would be allocated Rp 68,700, or Rp 824,500 per year, as compared to Rp 27,000 per month this year, or Rp 324,500 for the whole year of 2005.
"Those (poor) students still have to shoulder the remainder of their tuition fees, but of course the fees will be lower than what they pay now," he said.
"Should the subsidy allocation be the same as the fees charged by a school, or higher than the fees, we hope the students will be educated for free," he said.
Councillor Arkeno said that the council would require the administration to prepare a detailed budget for every school in the capital before agreeing to the proposed subsidy.
"Basically, we agree with the concept but we must ensure that the right people benefit from the assistance," he emphasized.
City Elementary Education Agency head Sylviana Murni could not immediately be reached for comment.
Head of the people's welfare division with the City Planning Body (Bapeda) Tuty Kusumawati said that school principals together with school boards were responsible for ensuring that poor students were the beneficiaries of the fund.
The school board could use the money for day-to-day educational activities, like for exams, office equipment, application forms and the pay of substitute teachers.
"However, the central government has issued guidelines to stop schools from using the money for other things," she said.
According to her, the money could not be used for things that were not directly in the student's interests, such as paying staff bonuses or extending school buildings.
She said that schools were obliged to report on the use of the funds every three months in accordance with the guidelines from the central government.