O

fficials from private schools, unsure of their future, have demanded that the Jakarta administration pay attention to the fate of their teaching staff and students if their schools are acquired or merged.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama announced previously that the administration planned to acquire troubled private schools across the city.

'The city administration must take care of our teachers and students,' Muhammad Syarifudin, vice principal of SMA Dewi Sartika senior high school, said on Wednesday.

He added that only one of the 25 teachers at his school, located in Tebet, South Jakarta, was a civil servant while the rest were permanent or contract-based employees.

According to Jakarta Education Agency head Taufik Yudi Mulyanto, besides SMA Dewi Sartika, another establishment on the radar is a school in North Jakarta managed by the Kusuma Harapan Foundation.

Basuki said the administration would buy the land and the building with a price based on the property's taxable value.

Syarifudin said SMA Dewi Sartika's performance was a concern and its student numbers had decreased steadily over the years.

The school used to cater for all levels of education, from kindergarten to senior high school but in early 2000 it began to only accept senior high students. It currently only has around 150 students.

One of the reasons attributed to the decline in enrollment, Syarifudin said, was that the surrounding area was now predominantly businesses.

SMA Dewi Sartika, a B rank (the second highest accreditation) school, is currently recruiting new students without a minimum score requirement.

Taufik said his agency was now actively discussing the acquisition of the schools.

'It is a complicated process ' we need to cover many areas, including legal matters, funding and the establishment of certainty confirming the owners want to sell the schools,' he said, adding that the fate of the students and teachers must also be addressed.

'We cannot immediately change the status of the teachers from private employees to civil servants. We need to assess them first,' Taufik said.

He added that the students also could not simply transfer to public schools. 'We can implement a 'passing out' system for students,' he said.

The head said the administration had not set a deadline for the acquisition, adding that he called on the foundations to actively speed up the process.

Taufik said his agency would also evaluate other private schools with poor performances.

'We will examine their quality and student quantity,' he said.