T

he Central Java administration plans to scrap its relief letter (SKTM) program for students from poor families looking to enroll in state junior and high schools across the province, because of misuse.

The plan was announced following reports that showed many parents pretending to be poor in the hope of benefiting from privileged access to nearby schools in 2018.

“The rampant use of fake SKTMs last year is the reason behind our plan to abolish the program,” Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo said on Tuesday. “The SKTM program led to many rich families claiming to be poor so their children could study in desirable schools.”

Last year, reports showed that 78,000 wrongly issued SKTMs were used by students and their families to enroll in state junior and senior high schools as well as vocational schools in the province.

Ganjar said the local education agency was currently seeking input from various stakeholders to help draw up a new policy, which would be implemented under a gubernatorial regulation.

He added that the new policy would not affect students from low-income families, saying that his administration would give them financial aid to enroll in state schools as long as their academic records matched the targeted schools. “We guarantee that poor students in Central Java can still go to school.”

Ganjar also vowed to ramp up the quality of all state schools in the province, saying that all schools should be equally good to prevent parents from having a mind-set that a quality education was only provided by certain favored state schools.