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School zoning and the break from elitist mentality
The ultimate success of every public school should be to ensure that all its students, regardless of their academic and social backgrounds, excel both intellectually and socially to reach their fullest potential as a human being. #opinion
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Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy expressed hope that schools would accommodate all school-age children in their respective zones. (JP/Muthi Kautsar)
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early two years ago, it took Abdul half an hour to reach his school in Depok, West Java, on a bicycle. He was so exhausted one day that sweat drenched his exam sheets. However, things improved when the government implemented a school zoning policy where schools must prioritize children living nearby. Abdul enrolled at a senior high school near his house that took him only 10 minutes by public transportation to reac.
The zoning system was intended to accommodate all children living near schools, regardless of their social and academic status. Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy expressed hope that schools would accommodate all school-age children in their respective zones.
Student admissions are carried out through three channels, namely the zoning channel (minimum quota of 90 percent), achievement channel (maximum quota of 5 percent) and transfer students (maximum quota of 5 percent). The main consideration of the new enrolment system is not academic achievement but the domicile of the students.
Since 2016, the education ministry has conducted intensive national consultative meetings with regional education offices to ensure they conduct further consultative meetings with the wider public in their respective regions.
However, student admission processes have caused heated controversy, as they are intimately related to the school zoning system, in which constraints and challenges vary in each region.
Parents in various areas have lodged complaints with schools and authorities, saying that their children with high academic achievement had failed to gain admission to “popular schools” because they had been “beaten” by other children with low academic qualifications that lived near the school.
While still strongly maintaining the policy, the minister has shown flexibility by accommodating the complaints by slightly increasing the quota of the achievement channel to 15 percent this year.
