Coordinating Minister For Human Development And Culture Invites Local Government To Form PPDB Task Force To Monitor School Zoning Fraud

Illustration of students assisted by officers rushed back home from studying at a school in the Temanggung area, Central Java. (Between)

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy invited the local government (Pemda) to form a New Student Admission Task Force (PPDB).

According to him, provinces and cities/districts that have implemented PPDB properly do not need to form the task force.

"Yes, if deemed necessary, if you are cool like DKI, a task force will be formed. That's still a problem in the form of a task force," said Muhadjir when met at the Jakarta Presidential Palace Complex, Thursday, July 13, which was confiscated by Antara.

Muhadjir assessed that the formation of the PPDB Task Force was the authority at the provincial government level for PPDB SMA/SMK, while SD-SMP was the authority of the district/city government.

He emphasized that the responsibility for equitable distribution of the quality of education does not only rely on the central government, namely the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek).

The formation of the PPDB Task Force was originally intended to mitigate fraud, including manipulation so that prospective students can be accepted at the desired school in the midst of implementing PPDB zoning lanes.

Muhadjir added that the practice of cheating in the zoning route was motivated by public perceptions regarding favorite schools.

"If there are still areas where there are fraudulent practices to include their children, there must be a perception that this is a favorite school and this is not a favorite school," he said.

Provisions regarding the zoning system in accepting new students are contained in the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture Number 17 of 2017 concerning PPDB in kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, vocational high school, or other equivalent forms.

This policy changes the prerequisite for admission of students in public schools from a national exam score to a distance from home to school.

Muhadjir stated that the zoning system in PPDB was implemented to prevent the occurrence of "castanization" of schools.