Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – A three-day registration period now under way for the start of the new school year is bringing smiles – and extra income – to teachers and education officials ever eager to offer their "services" to frantic parents.
Unfazed by high demand for places in some secondary schools, and that their children may not meet the entry requirements, parents are resorting to buka toko – which literally means "open shop" but in reality means opening up their wallets and forking out money.
The registration period is big business with the performances and grades of students taking second place to the amount that parents are willing to pay to teachers and officials on the take. Officials may charge between 500,000 rupiah (US$50) and more than 10 million rupiah for helping the children secure a place in a public secondary school of their choice.
And today – the final day of registration – is usually when buka toko is at its most hectic. Officials and teachers have been seen slipping telephone numbers to parents at the schools where children are being selected.
"It is not a matter of how smart your child is, but how much money you are willing to spend," said a mother registering her daughter at a secondary school in central Jakarta.
To be accepted into a public school, students must meet the required score of the National Junior High School Exit Test – the NEM score – set by each secondary school. But these scores hardly matter anymore. The process of selecting applicants is so obscure that parents often end up paying anyway just to guarantee that their child is selected for the school.
One parent, Madam Sudiro, said her son had graduated with a score of 44.11 out of 60 but she was afraid this might not be enough to get him into South Jakarta's SMU 70 school, whose minimum entry-requirement score is 43.99.
"I am negotiating with a person who has connections at the Education Ministry," she said. "He wants 4 million, but I'm trying to get it down to 2.5 million." Three years ago, she spent what she said was the "pre-crisis rate" of 5 million rupiah to get her older son into the same school as he had a much lower NEM score.
A team of ministry officials is in charge of the selection process for every high school. But recommendations by the school principal and teachers play an important role in deciding whether an applicant gets in.
The NEM system has been criticised for encouraging "collusion". But Education Minister Yahya Muhaimin has insisted on keeping the system this year despite calls for its termination.