West Java Governor Warns Free Private School Students: Behave Well or Lose Subsidies

West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi has mandated that students admitted to private schools free of charge after failing to secure places in state senior high schools, vocational schools, or special needs schools through the New Student Admission Selection (SPMB) must maintain good behaviour, or their subsidies will be revoked. Dedi emphasised strict sanctions in the form of revoking education subsidies for recipients of the free private school programme who are proven to have violated rules, conspired in criminal acts, or been involved in brawls. This measure is intended to ensure that regional budget absorption not only guarantees accessibility but also effectively shapes the character and morality of learners. “The students must commit. They receive quite a large subsidy from us. But they must also obey our rules, namely being good children, not brawling, for example,” said Dedi Mulyadi. The former Purwakarta Regent stressed that the West Java Provincial Government will not hesitate to periodically evaluate the behavioural track records of these social security beneficiaries in the field. “Later, if they violate the rules, we will revoke their subsidy,” warned KDM, Dedi’s popular nickname. The breakthrough free private school programme was specifically designed to secure the educational future of prospective students who are edged out of the fierce competition for limited state school quotas. Based on periodic data from the West Java Provincial Government, more than 70,000 prospective students are recorded as potentially not being accommodated in government-owned educational facilities following the Prospective New Student Mapping (PCMB). To mitigate this capacity issue, tens of thousands of these students will be distributed to a number of partner private schools that have officially signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the West Java Provincial Government. Through this collaborative scheme, students are guaranteed full coverage of education costs for three years of schooling. The operational assistance components covered by the West Java Provincial Government include the waiver of entry fees, building fees, and monthly school dues. The stimulus value allocated from the regional treasury reaches approximately Rp2.7 million per student each year, while the host private schools also remain entitled to receive injections of School Operational Assistance (BOS) funds from the central government. Dedi stressed that the set financing structure is rationally designed based on the region’s fiscal capacity, focusing on targeting economically vulnerable community groups, not on financing high-cost elite private school facilities.