Education is not for the poor

Paper Edition | Page: 8

Education and Culture Ministry and local governments say that primary schools are tuition-free. The fact, however, is that the schools are not free of charges.

It's no secret that the parents are always subject additional costs under the all sorts of guises. 

A good education does not come cheap, but the solution is always to charge the parent and never be creative in finding other funding sources such as collaboration with industry.

It is not a secret that our education is the object of business for some people. This is evident from the proliferation of tutoring, the enrollment fees, to the procurement of unnecessary textbooks to replace the old ones.

As always of course, the policy makers and education providers are always ready with excuses to justify the "projects". As a result, the poor in our country are traumatised and stressed when they have to enroll their children in a new school because of the swelling costs.

Lack of empathy of the suffering of the people is a phenomenon. Look at the people in power in this country!

According to our constitution, education should be the responsibility of the government. The education in this country, however, is treated like any other industry where many take the advantage of business opportunities. 

The rich are pleased to go ahead and enjoy their good education, but not for the poor. 

Aries Musnandar
UIN, Malang