Accomodating Underprivileged Students, DKI Raises The Affirmation Path

Illustration (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government increases the affirmation path quota in the New Student Admissions (PPDB) process for the 2020-2021 school year. Pathways are provided for students who come from underprivileged families and receive management programs such as the Jakarta Smart Card (KJP).

This is stated in the Decree of the Head of the Education Office Number 501 of 2020 concerning Technical Instructions for Admission of New Students for the 2020/2021 Academic Year.

In detail, there is an increase in the quota for the affirmation pathway for junior and senior high school levels, from 20 percent to 25 percent and for vocational school levels from 20 percent to 35 percent.

Then, the zoning route is provided with a 40 percent quota. This quota is intended for residents whose domicile is close to the quota destination school on the Zoning Route that can be followed by all levels of society who are in the zoning.

This year's PPDB DKI zoning route quota is different from the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture (Permendikbud) Number 44 of 2019 concerning PPDB with the stipulation of a zoning route of 50 percent.

Head of the DKI Jakarta Education Agency, Nahdiana, explained that the reason for his party to increase the quota for the affirmation pathway was to provide space for students who were unable to get the opportunity to receive quality education.

"The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government is committed to ensuring that every child gets quality educational opportunities. Therefore, adjustments are made to the proportion of students accepted. There is an increase in the quota of affirmation for junior high school, high school and vocational school levels," Nahdiana said in a written statement received by VOI, Monday, June 15th.

Nahdiana explained, the increase in the quota of the affirmation pathway was based on the fact that poor students often did not qualify for the registration of favorite schools because they were defeated by other high-achieving students, so that sometimes they had to look for other schools that did not match their initial goals.

According to Nahdiana, students who can excel academically often reflect socio-economic conditions, such as the availability of home study facilities, additional tutoring activities, additional books, and so on.

"The poor are actually eliminated in the zoning route because they cannot compete in terms of academic value with capable people. Therefore, a new policy is implemented, namely age as the selection criterion after the student has to live in the designated zoning, no longer an achievement," explained Nahdiana. .

Furthermore, Nahdiana explained, older age will take precedence. The school system is also designed according to the child's development stage, therefore, it is recommended that children are not too young when entering a school level.

"Thus, the order of selection in DKI is zoning, age of prospective new students, order of school choice, and time to register," he said.

Furthermore, apart from the affirmation and zoning pathways, there is a quota in other pathways at PPDB 2020. The quota for achievement pathways for SMP and SMA is 30 percent and SMK level is 60 percent. Then, the remaining 5 percent quota is for the transfer route of parents or teachers.