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Ahok helps street sweeper fix her granddaughter's school registration error
Bella Jane, granddaughter of street sweeper Meity, enjoyed her first day of school at SMP 277 state junior high school in Koja, North Jakarta, on Wednesday
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ella Jane, granddaughter of street sweeper Meity, enjoyed her first day of school at SMP 277 state junior high school in Koja, North Jakarta, on Wednesday.
The 12-year old girl had missed her first few school days due to an administrative error during registration, tribunnews.com reported.
Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, who was aware of the case, helped her by asking relevant departments to take care of the situation.
'It's done; she can go to school now. After learning about the case from a news report in a media outlet, I immediately sent the news link to Mr. Arie (Jakarta Education Agency head Arie Budhiman) and asked him to take care of it,' said Basuki as quoted by kompas.com.
Bella earned a national examination score (NEM) of 24.30, which helped her gain admission to SMP 277. Just a few days before the start of the new academic year, however, Bella found out that she was not listed on the school's student list.
Speaking separately, SMP 277 principal Supriyo admitted that the school was responsible for the mistake although he also did not want people blaming the school entirely for the mistake.
'Many students were registering here. There was a mistake in the registration process but they [Bella and Meity] went home in a hurry so we couldn't follow up [on the problem]. She was not the only one who wanted to study here,' Supriyo said.
Commenting the case, Ahok said this should serve lesson for local governments on how they should serve the people. This could also become a lesson on how the government should actively help when people are not accustomed to the complexity of bureaucracy.
On her first day of school, Bella was warmly welcomed by students of the school, who were cheering at her enthusiastically.
'Hooray! Bella is back at school! Bella! Bella! Bella!' they shouted in unison. (rad/ebf)(+++)
