Eka Sari Wulandari had to take two days off work to enroll her son in school. On Tuesday, she visited SMAN 2 state high school in Depok, West Java, for the second time.

She first arrived on Monday at 4 a.m., three hours before the school gates opened, to make sure she was near the front of the line. She came back on Tuesday to discuss her problems.

“I have finished the entire registration process,” she told The Jakarta Post, adding that her son’s high exam scores should have meant he was able to enroll in the school on the basis of academic merit, despite not living within close proximity to the school.

However, Eka registered her son through the zoning system, which only considers the proximity of a student’s house to nearby schools. She was unaware there was another option, the academic merit system.

School enrollment committee spokesman Hariyanto said that Eka should wait until the announcement on June 29.

Hariyanto said that parents had complained about the registration process, particularly the zoning system.

Tuesday marked the second day of the registration period in West Java, which runs from Monday through to Saturday.

In 2009, the public school enrollment system was upgraded from manual registration at a desired school to an integrated online system. The new system was intended to make enrollment easier and improve transparency, as parents can input their children’s data themselves.

However, this year the system was changed, with parents required to verify their children’s data at the school of their choice. The data is then input by the school registration committee before a verification form is printed.

As the final step, parents must sign the printed form. After that, students and parents can monitor the acceptance process via the public school enrollment (PPDB) website.

Parents have complained that the verification requirements have made the registration process longer than previous years.

The zoning system, aimed at ending elitism among certain schools favored by well-off families, has sparked controversy. Last year, it was discovered that some parents had faked their wealth and income levels so their children could be included in the special quota for underprivileged families in certain school districts.

Many education experts supported the government’s aspiration to boost the overall quality of education through the zoning system. However, they criticized the lack of infrastructure at several schools, which made the PPDB ineffective.

Deputy secretary-general of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI), Satriawan Salim, said parents were not fully informed about the PPBD and zoning system, which led to confusion.

“It is crucial for education agencies to discuss and organize their plans for the [PPDB and zoning system] scheme, and conduct an impact analysis to minimize incidents,” he said.

The PPDB policy regulated that 90 percent of students would be accepted to state schools based on the proximity of their houses to the schools, while 5 percent would be accepted based on academic merit. The remaining openings would be allocated for transfer students.

The head of West Java Education Agency, Dewi Sartika, asked parents not to worry and advised them to send their children to private schools if they were unable to be enrolled in a public school. (ecy)

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia