Scholarships to thousands poor students

Multa Fidrus , The Jakarta Post , Tangerang | Thu, 09/18/2008 4:30 PM | Jakarta

The Tangerang municipal administration will soon distribute financial education assistance to 33,794 school students under a multipurpose card program.

Tangerang mayor Wahidin Halim on Thursday said the administration had allocated Rp 6 billion (US$642,000) from the 2008 budget in a bid to provide equal opportunity for community members to access quality education.

"We hope that with the multipurpose card program, there will be no more school-age children dropping out of school in the municipality," Wahidin said.

In the program, the administration will distribute multipurpose cards to poor children and families. Holders of the cards are entitled to financial support from the administration for the year to pay for their school tuition and other schooling needs starting October. The financial support is extendible each year.

"The municipal education agency officials will start introducing the multipurpose cards and familiarize schools and parents with them this month," Wahidin said.

The education agency has listed more than 30,000 elementary students, 900 junior high school students, and 800 senior high school students who will receive the financial support. (dre)

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