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Ombudsman: School enrollment in 2024 still marred by irregularities
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Home address verification: An administrative officer of the SMAN 8 Depok state high school in West Java verifies a student’s home address during a new student enrollment session, as part of implementing the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry’s new school zoning enrollment system. The new system requires schools to prioritize enrolling students who live nearby. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
T
he Indonesian Ombudsman has revealed that this year’s public school enrollment (PPDB) is still marred by document falsification, a perennial issue since the implementation of the school zoning policy in 2017.
A top official at the Ombudsman, Diah Suryaningrum, said the fabrication of family cards in relation to school enrollment was the most reported issue. She even found an unusual case in which a family had ten children born within the same year.
“The document is valid [...] but it is uncommon to have ten children with only a few months of age difference in one household,” Diah said, adding that legal action is needed to create a deterrent effect for the perpetrators of document forgery.
In response to the report, Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry inspector general Chatarina Muliana Girsang stated that the ministry had taken precautions by issuing the relevant regulations to ensure that the students' registration documents matched the ministry's population and civil registry (Dukcapil) data.
"The problem is not in the regulation, but in the implementation," Catharina said in a press conference on Friday.
The zoning enrollment system, also known as PPDB zonasi, was presented to ensure more equitable access to state schools. The policy was introduced in 2017 by then-education minister Muhadjir Effendy, who is now the coordinating human development and culture minister.
Under the PPDB zonasi, schools are required to give a large portion of the available slots to students who live in the vicinity of the school, and a smaller number to students based on academic merit, in hopes of eliminating so-called “favorite schools” that only accept high-performing students.
