When The Value Of Education Is Destroyed By Lust And Cheating In The PPDB Zoning System

Five solutions provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture in New Student Admissions. (Between/Asep Fathulrahman)

JAKARTA - The discourse on removing the zoning system in the implementation of New Student Admissions (PPDB) next year will begin to be discussed. The reason is none other than because of the many allegations of fraud in the PPDB zoning system that many parents do.

Since 2017, the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) has issued a zoning policy in the PPDB revenue system. The government implemented a zoning system in the hope of carrying out comprehensive school reforms. According to the Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud) at that time, Muhadjir Effendy, zoning was one of the strategies to accelerate the equitable distribution of education.

The policy changes the category or requirements for accepting prospective students in public schools. From initially using the National Examination (UN) value to house distance to school. This zoning system basically imitates the success of PPDB in European or Scandinavian countries.

Reported by the Ministry of Education and Culture website, zoning policies were taken in response to the occurrence of a 'glass' in the education system in Indonesia because previously, student admissions were only carried out by selecting the quality of prospective students.

There should be no favoriteism. We have to change the casteism and favoriteism mindset in that kind of education. Selection in zoning is allowed only for placement (placement)," Muhadjir added.

The zoning system in PPDB actually has noble intentions for equitable education throughout the country. There is no more favoriteism because in fact everyone has the right to receive proper education according to the mandate at the opening of the 1945 Constitution, namely educating the nation's life.

Unfortunately, the zoning quota itself continues to be reduced from year to year. From 90 percent quota in 2017, this figure continues to decrease to 80 percent in 2018 and only 50 percent remains in 2019. Meanwhile, in the 2023/2024 school year, the quota set by each school in accepting prospective students is only adjusted to the capacity of the school.

The zoning route at the elementary level has a quota of at least 70 percent of the capacity of schools. Meanwhile, for the junior high and high school levels, the zoning quota for the zoning route is at least 50 percent of the school's capacity. The remaining quota was then given for academic and non-akademic achievement routes. Despite reaping pros and cons, the zoning system in PPDB had run smoothly since its launch in 2017, until finally cheating practices occurred.

The label of a favorite or superior school in education seems to be very difficult to abolish, even when the zoning system is enforced. This is believed to be the reason for the occurrence of fraudulent practices. There are parties who crash into the value of honesty and integrity in order to pursue a favorite school. The mode is with falsification of a Family Card (KK) or a Domicile Certificate (SKD). Both suddenly became magic letters to make it look as if prospective students are close to their favorite schools.

The zoning PPDB dispute has again attracted public attention in the 2023-2024 school year. Last month, the Bogor City Education Office disqualified 208 PPDB registrants for the SMPN level zoning route for allegedly falsifying population data and changing addresses in the Family Card (KK). The Bogor City Education Office previously found 297 zoning PPDB registrants who were suspected of having problems. After being verified, 89 of them experienced technical errors, while the rest were caught falsifying data.

"The majority of the 208 students who were disqualified, the majority of the population data registered in the PPDB system, did not match the data in the field," said Head of the Bogor City Education Office, Sujatmiko Baliarto.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the government is considering whether to continue or remove the zoning system in the implementation of PPDB next year. This is done in the aftermath of the chaotic new system in the past seven years.

"It is being considered. It will be checked in depth first with theplusminus," said Jokowi when met after testing the light train or Jabodebek LRT at Dukuh Atas Station, Thursday (10/8/2023), quoted by Antara.

Previously, the discourse of considering removing the PPDB zoning system next year was revealed by Deputy Chairperson of the MPR Ahmad Muzani. He said the PPDB zoning policy had deviated from its original goals. Instead of equitable distribution of superior schools, the zoning system actually causes problems in almost all countries.

However, the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy behaved a zoning system better than the old system which has given birth to many problems, such as counterfeiting the value to buying and selling seats. The implementation of the zoning system has a spirit of improvement, especially to remove the castanization' phenomenon in public schools, according to Muhadjir.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Bogor City Education Office, Sujatmiko Baliarto, emphasized the importance of evaluating the PPDB zoning system which has been going on for seven years. One thing that needs to be reviewed again is the practice of entrusting prospective students into family cards whose addresses are close to superior or favorite public schools according to parents.

The problem is, this action in other people's families is indirectly allowed in Article 17 Paragraph 2 of the Minister of Education and Culture Number 1 of 2021 concerning PPDB. The regulation explains that the domicile of prospective students is based on the address on the family card issued no later than one year before PPDB registration. It was revealed that Sujatmiko, the Permendikbud actually became a gap for the proliferation of the season' population during PPDB.

The regulation of the Permendikbud is not on target, because it gives birth to seasonal residents who occur during PPDB. Maybe it should be evaluated again so that there is no opportunity to suddenly move to outsmart this rule," said Sujatmiko to VOI.

Furthermore, Sujatmiko hopes that the government will distribute quality in the education sector, from infrastructure to teaching quality gradually so that in the future it will be better. This was also revealed by Education Policy Observer Cecep Darmawan.

According to him, fraud in PPDB is the aftermath of the problem of school quality disparities in various regions. Many people want their children to enter school with good quality so they commit fraudulent practices.

"If the standards of all schools are the same, building facilities are the same, the school area is the same, the quality of teachers is the same, of course people are happy to follow the zoning system. If everything is the same quality, why did he choose to go to school all the way? He must choose the close one. Then if possible, don't lose the favorite one. Let the school, which was originally a favorite, remain a favorite. But others must also be their favorite. Other schools have their quality improved so that their favorite standards are the same as good schools," said Cecep.

PPDB with a zoning system actually has a noble goal, as an effort to accelerate the equitable distribution of the quality of education throughout the country. However, when a system actually creates a gap for someone to commit fraudulent practices, there is nothing wrong with re-evaluating their advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, when these frauds occur in the world of education, which should instill honesty.