Anticipating the Global Crisis Impact

JAKARTA, KOMPAS— the government increased the number of both the program and the receiver of the scholarship for poor people, from elementary up to high education level. It is to anticipate the global crisis impact so that there will be no more drop out students because the lack of money.

Dodi Nandika, the Secretary General of National Education Department, during the AJang Interaksi Merah Putih Paskibraka Indonesia DKI Jakarta event, on Friday (13/3), in Jakarta, said, “In the arrangement of education budget of the year 2009, the government has already predicted the impact of global crisis, that’s why the scholarships for poor people is increased up to Rp. 3 trillion.

According to Dodi, the scholarship for poor students in the elementary level is increased from 690.000 in the year 2008 up to 2,2 millions in the year 2009 with the total Rp. 784 billion budget.

Dodi said, “that’s why, it is expected that there will be no more dropped students,” At the moment, there are about 841.000 dropped out students among 28,1 million of the elementary/madrasah ibtidayah students.

The scholarship for poor people of the elementary students is Rp. 360.000 per students per year. The money is directly sent via mail to the students for their personal cost, such as to buy uniforms, books, stationery, or transportation cost.
In the junior high school, the scholarships are distributed to 998.000 students. It is Rp. 48.000 per students per month, and for personal cost such as to buy uniform and stationery.
So far, even several schools are free of any charge, personal needs, however, cannot be fulfilled by poor students. At the moment there are about 211.643 dropped out students of junior high school/madrasah tsanawiyah students.

University Students are increased

Joko Sutrisno, the Director of Vocational High School Founding of National Education Department, mentioned that the number of poor students who get the scholarships in the vocational high school is added 200.000 students to be 928.539 students. The scholarship for the vocational high school students is Rp. 780.000 per year with the total Rp. 724 billion budget of the year.

On the other hand, in high education level, the number of poor university students who get scholarship is added 70.000 students to be 240.000 students.
The budget for the poor university students is around Rp. 600 billion and next year it is targeted to reach Rp. 1 trillion. (ELN)