Protesters hold a banner that reads “No fees for state and private schools“ during a protest demanding free education at a car-free day event in Jakarta on July 7, 2024. - Photo: Antara
JAKARTA: The Jakarta administration plans to arrange for low-income students to attend up to 1,000 private schools for free in the next academic year to prevent them dropping out of education because of financial problems, as the city’s limited public schools often fail to accommodate them.
The policy whereby poor students can be admitted to privately owned educational institutions without them having to spend any money has already been implemented in some 406 junior and senior high schools this year, and the city is set to expand the number of schools involved in the coming year.
The move is possible since the schools in question are in receipt of school operational assistance (BOS) funds from the Jakarta administration, allowing them to accept designated students without the obligation to pay educational fees.
The city’s Education Agency, as well as Legislative Council Commission E overseeing education, concluded last week that authorities should increase the free private school capacity as a large number of children from poor families are failing to secure their basic rights to education, as guaranteed by the country’s Constitution.
Jakarta's recent new student admissions shows that the city has 71,093 places in public junior high schools; the capacity is barely half the total of 151,164 prospective students.
A similar situation can also be seen at the high-school level, where the capacity of public high schools and vocational high schools stands at 29,559 and 20,130, respectively, far below the total of 139,841 prospective students.
Jakarta councilor Jhonny Simanjuntak said the use of the 1,000 private schools should start as soon as next year.
“The city has the budget; it is just a matter of political will to carry out the constitutional mandate," he said on Monday as quoted by Kompas.
The Constitution notes that education is the right of every citizen and that the government should pay for it by allocating at least 20 percent of the state budget.
In the past decade, the country has implemented a 12-year compulsory education rule, which phased out the previous nine-year compulsory education stipulation issued in 1994.
It is intended that all children receive education until senior high school, but this is not always the case; a huge number of children continue to be denied their right to education, owing to the government's inability to accommodate them and provide the necessary infrastructure and human resources.
"In the future, there will be no more student certificates withheld [by schools], students barred from taking exams or dropping out of school [due to arrears in paying tuition fees]," Jhonny said.
Jakarta, home to over 10 million people, has a total of 8,868 schools.
However, only 2,007 of them are public schools that largely exempt students from paying admission or monthly and yearly fees.
The remaining privately owned elementary and secondary schools often require students to pay exorbitant fees, leaving students from low-income families who fail to get admitted to public schools with no education at all.
Education and Culture Ministry data in 2022 revealed that Jakarta has the highest drop-out rate among students across the country, at over 75,000 children.
On the other hand, Jakarta had the highest regional budget of around Rp 76 trillion (US$4.85 billion) in the same year.
Acting Jakarta governor Heru Budi Hartono said his team was conducting a study on the possibility of extending the number of private schools involved in the free school programme; they were specifically looking into the budgetary requirements and the legal basis, among other issues.
Following that, the administration would expedite the drafting of regulations on the education system.
"So that the implementation of free school places can be carried out immediately," Heru said.
Acting Jakarta Education Agency head Budi Awaludin concurred, “Please wait for the results of the study,” he said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) member Aris Adi Leksono applauded the proposal to address students struggling to obtain a free education.
"We hope the proposal [of using up to 1,000 private schools] will be balanced by the commitment to improve the quality of education and the wellbeing of education personnel, such as teachers and school principals," Aris said on Tuesday (Aug 13). - The Jakarta Post/ANN
