New Student Revenue 2025: Different Name, Same Problem

Registration for SPMB for the SMA/SMK level in East Java. (ANTARA/HO-East Java Education Office)

JAKARTA The implementation of the 2025 New Student Admission System (SPMB) is still repeating the same problem as in previous years. The changes that occur are only technical about naming and the percentage number of each route.

SPMB 2025 has been officially open since last week. However, despite changing names, the problems faced by parents and prospective students remain the same.

The struggle for seats in public schools still occurs with this new system. And, this actually opens up gaps in the practice of illegal levies and buying and selling seats.

"It's been received by us some complaints from parents. For example, the system is online but in reality they still have to queue from before dawn. This is happening in many areas," said Ubaid Matraji, National Coordinator of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI).

The Ministry of Elementary and Secondary Education (Kemendikdasmen) has officially changed the New Student Admission System (PPDB) to a New Student Admission System (SPMB) starting in 2025/2026.

Mendikdasmen Abdul Mu'ti mengatakan pergantian PPDB menjadi SPMB tahun ini karena pemerintah ingin memberikan layanan pendidikan yang terbaik untuk semua. Abdul Mu'ti mengakui perubahan sistem ini dilakukan untuk memperbaiki kekuat-kelemahan pada sistem pendidikan sebelumnya.

In the SPMB, there are four new student admission pathways, namely the domicile path, affirmation route, mutation route, and achievement path. For information, the domicile path is a refinement of the zoning route used by PPDB since 2017.

At that time, zoning routes often caused chaos in almost every PPDB implementation.

But unfortunately, even though the Ministry of Education and Culture has eliminated PPDB and replaced it with an SPMB, complaints in the new student admission process still occur.

The Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) highlighted that the 2025 SPMB is still stuck in the classic problem, namely the struggle for seats in public schools without providing comprehensive solutions for the majority of children who are not accommodated.

JPPI National Coordinator Ubaid Matraji said, this has the potential to make extortion practices and the sale and purchase of seats in public schools stronger.

"There is a very high demand (demand), while the supply (supply) is very minimal," Ubaid Matraji told VOI.

The case of buying and selling seats, said Ubaid, occurred following the laws of the supply and demand market. The higher demand is because goods are scarce, the higher the selling price.

He gave an example of the SPMB at the high school level, which in almost various provinces has only about 30 percent capacity. Instead of just being busy taking care of 30 percent, Ubaid urged the government to focus on 70 percent of children who are not accommodated in public schools.

"It's like taking a bus (public school), this bus capacity clearly doesn't fit, why is the government just busy taking care of the selection of prospective passengers who want to take the bus? Even though there are far more passengers (student candidates) who are not accommodated? " he said.

This condition has the potential to increase the high number of dropouts at the high school level and the low school participation rate.

Another thing that is also in the spotlight is that the involvement of private schools in this year's SPMB is still the same as in previous years. This involvement, said Ubaid, is only optional, losing is arguably not involved.

In fact, the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) regarding the interpretation of Article 34 paragraph 2 of the National Education System Law states that the state is obliged to guarantee free basic education, including in private schools.

This means that the 2025 SPMB should regulate a comprehensive financing scheme for prospective students who do not qualify in public schools and eventually enter private schools.

"If you just provide assistance, the previous period has also been, and it is clearly considered unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, so the total need must be financed, not just partial assistance," Ubaid explained.

"Based on the 1945 Constitution Paragraph 2, the government's obligation is to finance (full cover), not only to provide assistance, so that the mandate of Article 34 Paragraph 2 of the Sisdiknas Law on the phrase without charge can really be fulfilled," he added.

Seeing the chaos in the SPMB process that occurred this year, Ubaid assessed that the existing system is still far from fair and has not been able to protect children's rights to education. Even the slogan quality education for all' launched by the Ministry of Education seems only to be rhetoric. He also believes that the seasonal turmoil of accepting prospective new students will always be repeated.

"The 2025 SPMB system is still discriminatory and has not fully met the principle of protecting the rights of all children on education," he said.

"Why should all children be? Obviously this is the basic right of every citizen and guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution article 31 paragraph 1 Every citizen has the right to education. Reaffirmed by paragraph 2, every citizen must follow basic education and the government must pay for it," he concluded.