PARENTS SHOULD BE CAUTIOUS WHEN CHOOSING PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta   |  Wed, 07/16/2008 12:28 PM  |  City

 

Parents nowadays need to be savvy when choosing private schools for their children. There are so many options with strange labels, yet little reliable information is available from either the schools or the government.

 

Which to choose: international, national plus, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge International Examinations or just a regular school?

 

Why will a school label itself as an “international school” or as a “national plus school”?

 

International schools are those that wholly adopt a foreign curriculum, while the label “national plus” refers to private schools combining the national curriculum with another curriculum from abroad or with an accrediting institution.

 

Lessons on Indonesian language and culture are still taught in national plus schools but most instruction is in English.

 

“Schools, ethically, need to be transparent in sharing their status to parents, to avoid misperceptions,” said Ridia Suryaningtyas, executive assistant of the Association of National Plus Schools (ANPS) on Thursday.

 

“Parents must also be active in looking for information, but in reality some just turn a blind eye and entrust their children to the schools,” she said.

 

ANPS, established in 2001, has a total of 70 school principals, owners and consultants across Indonesia. Up to 60 of its members are from Jakarta-area schools.

 

The association organizes seminars, workshops and accreditation programs to improve the quality of its member schools, including aspects of management, curriculum and human resources.

 

Payment terms for national plus schools vary. Fees are usually paid entirely in US dollars or in combination with rupiah. The tuition might be paid in advance for the entire six years for an elementary school student or for three years for a junior or senior high school student, Ridia said.

 

“Only those national plus schools that apply for membership are ANPS members,” she said.

 

There are two types of ANPS members: associate and accredited members.

 

The same is true for schools following an international curriculum such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) or the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE).

 

“There are important terms like IB-candidate and IB-accredited, of which parents are usually unaware,” Ridia said.

 

Saur M. Tampubolon, an official at the National Education Ministry, said “national plus” was a term created by private schools, which did not exist in the regulations.

 

“The concepts of national plus and international standards are still vague,” he said.

 

Saur is responsible for the development of international standards pilot project schools within the directorate general for management of elementary and secondary education at the ministry of education.

 

In 2007 the ministry issued quality assurance guidelines for elementary and secondary schools with international standards, which were defined as schools which first fulfill the national education standard and then enrich their curriculum with education standards from one of the countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

 

OECD has some 30 member countries, which include developed countries such as Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

 

The guidelines define nine criteria for schools with an international curriculum, including accreditations from both local and OECD-country accrediting bodies, curriculum equivalent to that of an OECD country, learning based on computer technology, teachers’ competence in teaching science and math in English, school principal holding at least a master’s degree and ISO 9001 certification.

 

When asked whether his department was charged with monitoring the schools, Saur said, “We only define the criteria and standards for quality assurance for those schools. Technically, monitoring is the duty of the municipal education agency as per the regional autonomy policy.”

 

However, when asked this same question, the head of Jakarta’s junior and senior high education agency Margani Mustar said the directorate general of management of elementary and secondary education was responsible for monitoring the development of schools with such labels.

 

“That’s the problem — there is no distinct body to oversee the mushrooming growth of these schools.

 

“Education has been handed over to the free market, without any control from the government. Only the rich own education now,” education expert HAR Tilaar said.

FINDING A GOOD SCHOOL THE HARD WAY

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta   |  Wed, 07/16/2008 12:28 PM  |  City

 

Private schools that set high tuition fees — and tag themselves with “national plus” and “international standards” labels — are easy to find nowadays.

 

The question remains, however, whether the tags portray the schools’ determination to provide quality education or are merely a device to attract wealthy parents.

 

“Parents must be careful because these tags might be just a gimmick,” said Sahat Panggabean, parent of a student at the private national plus school John Calvin International School (JCIS) in East Jakarta, recently closed due to bankruptcy.

 

“Before enrolling we knew the school did have classes with English instruction and an international curriculum from some foreign educational institution. But we couldn’t be certain about the commitment of the school management.”

 

The school, which applied Cambridge International Examinations as its curriculum since establishing itself last year, closed in mid-May due to failure to pay rent on its 8,185 square-meter school building.

 

Financial difficulties led to the school’s inability to pay two months of salary to 18 of its elementary and secondary teachers.

 

“The school management blamed financial difficulties for JCIS’ closure. They later persuaded parents to move students to their other school, Saint Peter’s School, still under construction. How could they do that with ease?” Panggabean said.

 

“Clearly, the management had no commitment to invest in education. They were merely looking for a high return. So, when they encountered a problem like this, their solution was simply based on how to save their own money.”

 

He said parents later found out JCIS, which registered students in classes from elementary through senior high levels, only had a license for its elementary and junior high schools.

 

Panggabean’s family’s first involvement with the school management started when he enrolled his daughter in Saint Peter’s National Plus School, which had the same board members as JCIS but was not an international school.

 

The management told him they had opened an international school called John Calvin and offered his daughter a place there. He took it, paying an entrance fee of US$2,500 and a monthly tuition fee at $180.

 

“Because of her good grades, JCIS gave me a 10 percent discount off the tuition fee, which was supposed to be $200,” he said.

 

“I thought JCIS would be better than Saint Peter’s National Plus School because it meets an international standard and because part of its stock was owned by the former education minister Wardiman Djojonegoro.”

 

Wardiman, recently quoted in the daily newspaper Warta Kota compared the failed JCIS management to a broken bus. “It’s just like a bus broken down on the road to Bandung, understandably the passengers got upset.”

 

Another parent, Prisca Delima, regretted how JCIS settled the case.

 

“The management should have fought better to keep the school running instead of closing it down just like that.

 

“The government should also set clear regulations to control this kind of school, especially its quality, so that the investors don’t see schools merely as commercial enterprises and neglect the educational mission,” said Prisca, who has moved her two children to another private school.

 

Senior educator Soedijarto from the Jakarta State University said many investors put their money into schools to become richer.

 

“I haven’t seen any pure dedication to education in their motivation.”

 

Prisca said some of JCIS’ teachers did not seem to have mastered the subjects as they had no educational background in the particular subject they taught in English.

 

Edison Nababan, a parent from a “national plus school with international standards” in Kemang Pratama, Bekasi, said “I doubted the label international because it is unclear what international means. But what can I say? My wife wanted our son enrolled in a national plus elementary school because it seemed to have higher prestige.

 

“New teachers come and go and most of them are fresh graduates without teaching experience. How can the school be called a national plus with international standards?

 

“Now, look what we have, a fifth grader who still can’t multiply 17 times 7,” Edison said, who pays Rp 2 million ($220) monthly tuition and up to Rp 20 million ($2,200) in entrance fees.

 

“I paid a large amount of money. I expect full return, which means my son becomes clever without my interference,” he said.

 

Education observer Setiono Sugiharto added that parents looking for schools for their children must communicate with other parents.

 

“Cross-checking and experience sharing with other parents is crucial to finding out how the school’s curriculum is applied in a real classroom.

 

“Many wealthy parents are ignorant of the quality of the educational content. Instead they tend to prioritize only the school labels,” Setiono said.