Classification of Schools Criticized

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Budget from central government and local government to public schools at the elementary mid level can only suffice the school operational expenses in a limited fashion. Meanwhile, school classification is being in the spotlight because it is considered to cause an increase in school fees.

The budget received from the government is only enough to pay teachers’ salary and the maintenance of schools. To improve education quality, the community is the one that has the greatest responsibility by paying new student fee and monthly fees.

"To support school programs in order to improve the learning process so as to standardize students’ competencies in accordance to national and international standards, people cannot just rely on the supporting budget from the government. This need must be discussed with the school committee, and then further discussed with and socialized to students’ parents, when it comes to the issue of funding,” says the Principal of   SMKN 6 Jakarta Waluyo Hadi, on Thursday (7/3).

He takes an example that each year schools send teacher to trainings to become assessor candidates. The budget from the government cannot cover this program, thus, students must be asked for support.

This also applies to the international certification program for students in the majors English, Information and Technology, Mandarin, which co-operates with foreign education bodies. These programs must also be paid for by the students. “The key is everything must be discussed with the school committee and should not burden students from poor families,” explains Waluyo.

From the description of the online school revenue and expenditure budget (APBS) of SMA/SMKs in the whole of Jakarta, for instance, the usage of the budget in the National and Local Revenue  and Expenditure Budget (APBN & APBD) is for the regular expenses and cannot be used to support school programs so they can improve their learning quality. The monthly school fee at SM/SMKs is as high as Rp lOO,OOO-Rp 35,.000. New students must pay Rp 1 million to several million rupiahs.

Suyanto, the Directorate General of the Management of Elementary and Mid Level Education of the Department of National Education, states that the school operational support which is given by the central government for the elementary and junior high level only covers 1/3 of the whole school operational expenses. This condition makes the participation of the community inevitable. 

The Coordinator of Monitoring of the Service of the Indonesia Corruption Watch, Ade Irawan, scrutinizes the classification made by the government: regular schools, pilot schools, schools with national standards and schools with international standards. What is inappropriate is that the government practices double standard by giving permission to regular schools to collect payments from students.