Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said he had signed a circular informing regional heads and schools about a revision to Education and Culture Ministerial Decree No. 51/2018 on the school enrollment zoning system policy.

The revision in the new Education and Culture Ministerial Decree No. 20/2019 stipulates that the ministry will increase the enrollment quota for high performing students to 15 percent of the total number of seats in a school, from the initial 5 percent. Another 5 percent will be allocated to transfer students, while the remaining 80 percent will still be determined by the zoning policy.

“The President asked us to evaluate some parts of the zoning policy that had triggered disagreements, one of them was the quota for students with high academic achievement who wanted to enroll in schools outside their zoning system. The President has asked us to increase the quota from 5 to 15 percent. But for the provinces that can run with only a 5 percent quota they can continue,” Muhadjir told the media on Friday.

He also ensured that the zoning system was here to stay for a long time. “Of course, the zoning system will continue. [The quota for high-achieving students] is the only controversial issue that arose,” he added.

The zoning system ensures that students will get to the closest schools in their area regardless of their scores or who registered first. This is the third year the system has been in place since it was first implemented in 2017.

With the new revision, the system will decrease the percentage of those who enroll through the zoning system from the initial 90 percent to, “at least 80 percent”, according to Muhadjir.

The government revised the decision shortly after the chaotic first week of school registration in West Java and East Java in which parents and students scrambled to get themselves registered at their preferred state schools. Some woke up very early in the morning.

The zoning system, which was originally intended to equalize the average quality of schools within every city and regency, has backfired with an uneven distribution of schools in some provinces. Some students with a small number of state schools in their area are forced to enroll in more expensive private schools.

The government’s policy revision, however, has not been received well by education experts. Doni Koesoema, an education expert from Multimedia Nusantara University, called it a “reactive decision”.

Doni said he still had faith in the zoning policy because it offered better access to education especially for middle- and low-income families.

“This is a very good policy and the ministry must be able to defend its stance. Five percent [for the quota of students given places based on high academic achievement] is already good. Yes, the ministry must listen to critics but increasing the quota is unreasonable. This change will sacrifice 10 percent of the students from middle to low income families who need to get the closest access to school. It will create an injustice,” Doni said.

A father and a member of nongovernmental group Cahaya Guru Foundation, which specializes in providing training for teachers, Komar Kasman, also supported the zoning policy, saying that it would “save children from unnecessary exhaustion and bring back the important collaboration role of families, schools and the community on the children’s development by bringing them closer to home”.

“Since my first daughter was in kindergarten until she was in senior high school, she had to leave for school at 5 a.m. every single day because her school was 20 kilometers away from our home. We lived in Depok and her school was in Jakarta. We sent her there because we could not get her a place at the schools nearby and we wanted her to receive a better education quality in Jakarta,” Komar said.

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