Wait is over as students, schools receive assistance fund
Wait is over as students, schools receive assistance fund
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
After a six months' wait following the central government's
decision to cut the fuel subsidy in early March and to divert the
funds for education and health services, poor families in the
capital will soon enjoy a little relief.
The government finally disbursed some of the fund earmarked to
help provide education for students from economically
disadvantaged families.
"The fund for the academic term from July to December has been
allotted by the central government and has been deposited in
city-owned Bank DKI, ready to be passed directly on to needy
schools and poor students," said City Basic Education Agency head
Sylviana Murni.
She said that the bank was appointed to manage the fund
disbursement since all public schools had accounts in the bank.
"Since Bank DKI belongs to the administration, we will be able
to better control the disbursement of the fund," she added.
Head of the people's welfare division with the City Planning
Body (Bapeda), Tuty Kusumawati, said that school principals and
committees were responsible for ensuring that poor students
benefited from the fund.
"For instance, the school management could now provide a
transportation allowance to poor students whose homes are far
from school," she said.
She played down fears that greater authority given to the
school management would lead to the misuse of the fund.
"As stipulated in the guidelines issued by the Ministry of
National Education, the central government requires the schools
to report the use of the fund every three months," she said.
The fund, the recipients of which are disadvantaged students,
would be divided into two programs.
The first program, known as school operations assistance
program (BOS), is meant to assist schools to exempt poor students
from paying school fees, but at the same time maintain quality
services. The second, the special assistance for students (BKM),
is a program providing direct assistance to underprivileged
students to ensure they stay on at school.
Under the BOS scheme, each elementary school and Islamic
elementary school will be provided with Rp 235,000 per poor
student per year. From July to December this year, each school
will be provided with Rp 117,500 per student.
Similarly, junior high schools and Islamic junior high schools
get Rp 324,500 per student per year, or Rp 162,250 in the first
six month period.
Meanwhile, each elementary student will receive Rp 10,000
monthly under the BKM scheme. Junior high school students will
get Rp 20,000, while senior high school or vocational high school
students will receive Rp 25,000 per month.
Data from Bapeda's people's welfare division shows that
Jakarta receives a Rp 9.2 billion fund under the BKM scheme for
the July-December term and Rp 170.9 billion under the BOS program
for the same term.
The fund in the BKM program will be given to 13,208 poor
students, while the fund in the BOS scheme will be given to
1,305,716 students.
How schools use the assistance funds:
Suggested use of the fund:
1. Provide application form fee
2. Provide text books and library books
3. Administer exams, final tests
4. Provide office equipment: chalk, exercise books
5. Honorarium for non-permanent teachers or trainees
6. Help fund student activities and programs
7. Cover transportation costs of poor students
8. For religious boarding schools, the fund could be used
to help pay boarding school fees
Prohibited under the scheme:
1. Deposit the money to profit from its interest
2. Give loans to other parties
3. Pay members of the school management's bonuses, transportation
costs, meals or clothing allowances
4. Construct new rooms or buildings
5. Purchase materials and equipment that are not connected to
educational activities.
6. Buy shares in businesses.
Source: Guidelines from the Ministry of National Education 2005