The Jakarta DPRD Calls The Discourse Of Free Private Schools Not For All Students, Only Those Registered With DTKS

School illustration (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the DKI Jakarta DPRD, Ima Mahdiah, said that not all students in private schools are included in the target of free schools which are planned to be run next year in Jakarta.

In its planning, the DKI Provincial Government has mapped private schools in Jakarta based on quality and costs with a level or cluster scheme from clusters one to five.

Private schools that will be targeted by the government for free private school programs are clusters one to three. While clusters four and five are considered as elite private schools that are not included in this program.

Not only that, the government will also select students who are accepted into the free school program. The main criteria are those from underprivileged families.

"That's only for those who are registered as underprivileged groups. For example, in one school, for example there are 200 quotas, the 100 are for those that are financed by the DKI Regional Government. So it's not the 200 people in private schools," Ima told reporters, Friday, November 8.

More specifically, underprivileged students who will be financed in schools are those who are registered in the integrated social welfare data (DTKS) or have a certificate of incapacity from the local village. If they do not meet one of these criteria, they will continue to pay for education fees in their respective private schools.

"Those who can afford it will definitely pay. Because the conditions we are targeting are children who really can't afford it. Because if children are able, their parents have financed them, but if children who can't afford it, that's our priority because we have to carry out social justice," explained Ima.

"Because actually many private schools live, they don't want to die, they don't want to. With this free school, they can directly subsidize from the government. The school will live again," he added.

Currently, the DKI Jakarta DPRD and the DKI Provincial Government are preparing a general budget policy and a temporary budget priority ceiling (KUA-PPAS) for the 2025 budget year APBD.

The allocation of the APBD draft next year is being tampered with to be able to run a free school program at private educational institutions in Jakarta.

There was a discourse that the free school budget would be taken from the Jakarta Smart Card (KJP) distribution budget. Thus, the educational assistance program has the potential to be removed because it is diverted to free schools.

However, the DPRD wants KJP to be distributed when free schools are implemented, considering that the educational assistance program is still very much needed by students from underprivileged groups of people.