Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – While welcoming the government's newly launched book regulation for schoolchildren, critics say the policy lacks clarity, sets wrong targets and failed to involve all stakeholders during the formulation process.
Association of Indonesian Publishers (IKAPI) chairman Setia Dharma Madjid told a discussion here Monday the government applied a "double standard" in the new policy.
"On one hand, the government buys copyrights from authors, but on the other hand, it insists on assessing our books," he said. "This is unclear. If we can't publish school textbooks anymore, then we won't publish them."
Coordinator of the Independent Group for Book Advocacy (KITAB), Fitriani Sunarto, said the 2008 regulation on the school textbook policy, issued by the Education Ministry, failed to provide clear controls and sanctions for violators.
"It only mentions that teachers or publishers violating the regulation will face sanctions based on existing regulations. But which regulations? I'm afraid it will repeat past mistakes; violations were never settled and offenders were only reprimanded," Fitriani said.
The ministerial regulation prohibits teachers from selling textbooks at school, a prohibition that officially has been in place for years, if seldom enforced. The book policy regulates the provision of textbooks at schools and ensures their quality and low price.
Through the policy the government will buy the copyrights to 295 textbooks for elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools and vocational high schools by the end of the year, and allow students to download the books for free. So far, the copyrights of 49 textbooks have been bought at between Rp 45 million (US$4,900) and Rp 75 million each.
Jakarta State Polytechnic lecturer Junaidi Gafar singled out the government's online book policy, which he said was "wrongly targeted" because only schoolchildren from affluent families could access the Internet to download the books.
"So, these e-books are accessible only to those who don't need help to buy their schoolbooks," Junaidi said. He also said the government seemed unprepared to protect its website from hackers, who might easily change the content of books.
Junaidi and Setia said the government should have involved other stakeholders, such as publishers, printing companies and teachers, in drafting the regulation.
Fitriani suggested the regulation be revoked. "The affordable book policy means the government is denying its responsibility to provide free books for students," she said.
Another speaker at the discussion, a member of the House of Representatives' education commission, Ferdiansyah, said the new book policy was a result of political pressure put on the government to provide affordable books for students.
He said costly books accounted for a large percentage of school fees. However, Ferdiansyah said the government should not become too involved in the sale of textbooks.
"The Education Ministry should have involved the Industry Ministry and the Trade Ministry in drafting the book regulation," said the Golkar Party politician.