Suara Pembaruan, page 16, Friday 30 June
In 2017, the Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud), Muhadjir Effendy, is implementing educational reformation. One of these reforms is New Student Admission (PPDB) in state schools being zoning-based. This is to be applied at all levels excluding Vocational High Schools (SMK).
The provision of this zoning system was contained in Permendikbud 17/2018 concerning PPDB. According to Article 90, a minimum of 90 percent of the new student quota is to be filled by students from the closest radius. However, according to the reports concerning the zoning system, several favored schools that usually accept students in large numbers are complaining about a lack of students.
Therefore, Muhadjir has already instructed all heads of education boards (Kadisdik) and implemented work deliberation of headmasters in every zone to regulate the distribution and allocation of new students fairly and proportionally. To ease the coordination system, government has already released the guidance.
Meanwhile, in the view of Expert Staff of National Education System, Andreas Tambah, the zoning system was necessary to upgrade the quality and equalize the education as well as eliminate parents’ impressions of nearby schools. Therefore, before implementing the system, the government should be concerned the competence and abilities of headmasters, school management and competence of the teachers.
In line with such a view, the General Secretary of Federation of Indonesian Teachers Union (FSGI), Retno Lestyarti, stated that the zoning system benefited all parties. Besides meaning that students will be closer to school, this system will help alleviate traffic jams. Moreover, bright students will be spread across various schools and not concentrated in a favored few schools.
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