West Sumatra Ombudsman Finds School Asking For Development Money To Student Mayor During PPDB

Head of the Ombudsman Representative for West Sumatra Yefri Heriani when interviewed in Padang regarding PPDB. (ANTARA/Muhammad Zulfikar).

The Ombudsman Representative for West Sumatra (West Sumatra) still found a school suspected of maladministration during the process of accepting new students or PPDB.

"This year, there has been one special report that has been submitted to the Ombudsman regarding PPDB," said Head of the West Sumatra Representative Ombudsman Yefri Heriani in Padang as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, June 22.

Yefri explained that the school suspected of carrying out maladministration was reported for citing committee money or construction money to parents during the PPDB or registration process.

In addition, the West Sumatra Ombudsman also found an educational unit that sells school uniforms, even though the supervisory agency for organizing public services had conveyed that the sale of school uniforms or quoting committee money was not justified during PPDB.

"It's not allowed (to sell school uniforms and quote committee money) but it's still happening," he said.

Before the PPDB at the elementary and junior high school levels were equal, the West Sumatra Ombudsman coordinated with the local Ministry of Religion (Kemenag). Following up, the West Sumatra Provincial Ministry of Religion issued a circular so that schools would not sell school uniforms or pay committee money during the registration period.

The founder of the Women's Crisis Center Nurani Perempuan Province of West Sumatra said he had also coordinated with more than 200 principals of high school equivalent in West Sumatra. From that meeting, the Ombudsman found that there were still many school principals who did not understand the legal rules regarding donations, and levies in education units.

According to him, understanding and briefing on legal rules is important to convey to school officials so that illegal levies or extortion do not occur.

"The Ombudsman emphasized that this requires supervision so that there are no illegal levies at schools," he emphasized.

Finally, the Ombudsman also found information that quite a lot of people were aware of the practice of extortion in schools, but were reluctant to report it for various reasons. For this reason, the institution hopes that all parties will actively monitor the performance of public services, including schools.