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Govt program helps students in need
Getting to and from school just became more fun for 11-year-old Alfan Rizky Maulana
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Getting to and from school just became more fun for 11-year-old Alfan Rizky Maulana.
The fifth grader at the SDN state elementary school in Kebonsari, Pasuruan, East Java, just received a bicycle under the School Operational Assistance (BOS) program launched in 2004. The BOS funds are used to assist needy students with the costs of attending school, which includes, among other things, cutting transport costs by providing bikes for certain students.
"I must keep this bicycle clean and look after it, or I will get into trouble. The teacher can help me get new parts if something happens to it," Alfan told The Jakarta Post recently.
The bike has served other useful purposes for Alfan, who uses it to fetch his mother Naimah from a neighbor's house 5 kilometers away each day after work. She is employed there as a domestic workers and is the family's sole breadwinner, bringing in Rp 200,000 (about US$20) per month.
Alfan's father Ahmad Subur was left unable to find work after sustaining a head injury in an accident six years ago. Working at a timber company in Pasuruan at the time, he was dismissed and has not been able to find work since.
"My father has not lost his mind. He is still healthy, but he gets dizzy often. My mother has tried to cure his illness but it has been in vain," Alfan said.
Ngaderi, one of Alfan's teachers, said Naimah had requested her son stop schooling after his father's accident, but the teachers refused and tried to find a solution to the problem.
"Initially, teachers at the school contributed to Alfan's school fees. Fortunately, in the middle of 2004 the East Java provincial administration initiated the BOS program," said Ngaderi.
The East Java provincial administration set aside more than Rp 750 million from the provincial budget for the program, which in its early days assisted 30,000 elementary and junior high school students with their education costs.
Although the central government is responsible for making the funding available, the responsibility for distributing the assistance remains with the provincial administrations, especially when deciding which education facilities require improvement or where equipment is needed.
The amount of BOS funds provided by the government to elementary and junior high school students this year topped Rp 16 trillion, compared to Rp 11.2 trillion in 2008.
Fourteen-year-old Nur Aida Elisa, a student at the SMP 1 Sidayu junior high school, is also enjoying the assistance provided through the BOS program. She nearly dropped out of her school in Gresik when her father passed away three years ago and her mother, a vegetable seller, could no longer provide for her education.
"I want to continue studying until university," Aida said.
East Java Vice Governor Saifullah Yusuf said the provincial administration was currently drafting a number of regulations to try and make education free for all students across Indonesia for the first twelve years.
"The free education program is a commitment by the government to achieve the 12-year basic education program. Schools are strongly prohibited from demanding any kind of fees from parents. They must hold a permit from the local leader if they wish to do so," he said.
The provincial administration has set aside Rp 13 trillion from its budget for the 12-year free education program. The funds will also be provided to nearly 6,350 Islamic boarding schools across East Java in 2010.
The program is being implemented across the regencies of Sampang and Situbondo, with all schools in those areas receiving Rp 15 billion in funding.
Mochammad Mas'ud, principal of SMP I junior high school in Gresik, said the BOS program had reduced the number of students dropping out of school.
"This year, not a single student dropped out of school. Most of them come from blue-collar families with parents who are farmers and sand miners," Mas'ud said.
The secretary at the East Java administration, Rasiyo, said the government and the Supreme Audit Agency would closely monitor the implementation of the program, including by training teachers to record their school's finances official in a report.
