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smiling woman on the TV screen cheerfully assures a public minivan driver that the government provides education for all.

"Although the father is a driver, the child can become a pilot. Although the father is a newspaper deliveryman, the child can become a journalist," she says in rhyming Indonesian.

The nine-year free education program, however, does not include senior high school.

Children from middle- to high-income families usually get a better chance of continuing their studies, even at state and private schools with high class facility. The doors at some schools are also still open for bright children coming from low income families.

Sitting at the bottom rung are poor students with low achievements.

Education consultant Romy Cahyadi says the gap between students whose parents can afford a decent living and students whose parents can barely make ends meet is getting wider.

"The higher a parents' financial status, the better the education they can give their children," he says.

"This phenomenon is especially true in big cities."

He adds new expensive private schools owned by big companies have mushroomed during the past 10 years, in response to the market's demand for schools of higher qualities and better facilities.

The government, meanwhile, gauges education improvement by the number of medals students get at international academic competitions, and the number of state schools that carry an international standard label, Romy says. The government attaches various labels to different types of state schools, while private schools also attach slightly different labels to their names.

State schools can be of the international standard type (SBI), international standard pilot-project (RSBI), national standard (SSN), model schools and regular schools. At the bottom of the heap are regular ones.

RSBI refers to state schools that are in the process of becoming SBI schools. SSN refers to state schools with qualified teachers, complete school facilities and good academic achievements.

Model schools are those in the process of becoming SSN schools, while regular schools are state schools with modest human resources and facilities.

Labels for private schools include National Plus, for schools that combine national and foreign curricula and foster an English-speaking environment. Some international schools adopt their complete curricula from sister schools abroad.

Amid the trend for creating labels and the penchant for international curricula, Canisius College in Menteng, Central Jakarta, has stuck with its regular curriculum and hung on to local teachers.

"What's the use of all these labels?" says vice principal Petrus Gemadi, in charge of the curriculum.

"We're known from our graduates. Besides, 40 percent of our graduates go on to study abroad."

RSBI-rated schools, such as senior high school SMAN 8 and junior high school SMPN 115 in South Jakarta, can set fees according to an agreement with parents. The two schools offer native-speaker teachers to students in "international" classes, and boast air-conditioned classrooms and electronic teaching devices.

International class registration and entrance tests at both schools are open before the official online student registration, similar to private schools, to attract bright students earlier.

"Students enrolled in international classes mostly aim to study abroad," Romy says.

He says he is concerned that without government monitoring of nationalist values, the presence of high-class private schools would create social segregation.

"In a school where the children come from families of the same financial level, the students develop similar ways of life," Romy says.

"In their next 10 or 15 years of education, they don't get the chance to mingle with children of different backgrounds. This is dangerous, because they can lose the sense of solidarity."

Some schools, including Muhammadiyah boarding schools and Catholic schools, he goes on, should get support because they allow room for children from low-income families.