Indonesia to expand free schooling for poor students at private institutions

Jhonny Simanjuntak, member of the Jakarta regional Legislative Council Commission overseeing education, noted the policy whereby poor students can be admitted to privately owned educational institutions without having to spend any money has already been implemented in 406 junior and senior high schools this year.

He added that the city is set to expand the number of schools involved in the coming year.

The move is believed to be feasible since those private schools are receiving school operational assistance (BOS) funds from the Jakarta administration.

Data from the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture in 2022 revealed that Jakarta had the highest drop-out rate among students across the country, at over 75,000.

Meanwhile, it was allocated the highest regional budget of around 76 trillion Rp (US$4.85 billion) in the same year. Jakarta, home to over 10 million people, has a total of 8,868 schools.

However, only 2,007 of them are public schools that largely exempt students from paying admission or monthly and yearly fees.