Surabaya municipal government to regulate school fees

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post/Surabaya

With a tired face, Sayuti, 37, takes the thousands of rupiah in notes from a pawnshop employee after cashing in a small bracelet.

"I will use this money to pay for my children's school fees," the mother of two children says, smoothing the rumples on her shirt.

Sayuti is a regular customer of East Java Pawnshop Office, who often swaps valuables for cash as the new school term begins every July. Last year, she pawned a cassette player worth Rp 200,000 (US$21.3) that was later sold when she never came to buy it back.

In order to pay the school fees, Sayuti earns Rp 300,000 a month as a maid at an upscale housing complex in Surabaya. Her husband, a seasonal construction worker, has no fixed income. She says their combined wages barely meet the cost of the rent and other living costs, let alone her children's education.

Sayuti worries that her children's days at school are numbered. The bracelet she pawned was her last valuable left. Her television set has already gone and while her husband is now employed for a few weeks, she cannot rely on his income to keep paying the tuition fees, she says.

"I don't have the idea where else I can get the money. It's better to lose the valuables as long as my children can continue at elementary school."

Sending out the children to find employment is another option, but Sayuti won't let this happen because they are too young. However, unless the situation changes for the family, elementary schooling is likely to be the best education the children get.

Sayuti is one of thousands of poor mothers struggling to keep her children at school in a city where elementary tuition fees range between Rp 15,000 and Rp 25,000 per student a month. Costs increase to between Rp 65,000 and Rp 125,000 a month for junior high schools, with monthly senior high education costing between Rp 125,000 and Rp 500,000.

Responding to public criticism about the high cost of school fees, city education office head Sahudi said the office was planning to propose a bylaw that standardized education fees from elementary to senior high.

If it was approved by the Surabaya municipal council, the bylaw would take effect next year.

"The bylaw will be binding on both private and state schools in the city," Sahudi said.

Along with providing clear information about school fees for parents, the scheme is expected to create a standard for a maximum fee.

"The bylaw is similar to minimum wage rates imposed by the government. The schools must comply with the bylaw or they will be punished," Sahudi said.

Under the planned bylaw, if the school management objected to the fee rate and wanted to charge parents more, they would have to seek approval from school committees on which parents also had representation. If the committees approved the proposal, then they would have to report their decision to the chief of the Surabaya education office for final approval.

Those students unable to afford any school fees, would be encouraged to file proposals to the office for scholarships or subsidies, Sahudi said.

He said 103,565 out of total of 240,000 elementary school students in the city currently received subsidized or free education.