0 Rp 128.9b for students from low-income families

The provincial administration this year has allocated Rp 128.9 billion (US$13.23 million) from its annual budget to provide scholarships for students from low-income families. “The scholarship fund is part of our attempts to support the 12-year compulsory education program. Hopefully, there will be no needy student who has to drop out of school because of lack of money,” Governor Made Mangku Pastika said. 

Scholarships will be distributed to more than 102,000 needy students living throughout the resort island, consisting of 56,000 elementary school students, 20,000 junior high school students, 10,000 senior high school students and more than 16,000 students in vocational senior high schools. Scholarship recipients at elementary school level will each receive Rp 620,000 per year. A junior high school student will get Rp 890,000, while senior high school students will receive Rp 2 million and vocational senior high school students Rp 3.2 million. 

“The specific amount for each level of education was determined by the education agency following a study on the students’ needs. These scholarships mean that students and their parents don’t need to think about the cost of education,” Pastika said. The agency’s study showed that average annual cost of education for an elementary school student was Rp 1.2 million. As the central government has provided Rp 580,000 per student through the school operational assistance (BOS) program, the provincial administration only has to come up with the additional Rp 620,000 of assistance per year. 

“At junior high school level, the average cost reaches Rp 1.6 million per year. As the BOS program is worth Rp 710,000 per student, the provincial administration allocated Rp 890,000 per year for needy students,” he said. For senior high school students, the average cost of education was estimated at Rp 5 million per student per year. The central government has allocated Rp 2 million assistance for each student. The provincial administration will provide an additional Rp 2 million per student, while the regency administrations are expected to contribute Rp 1 million per student per year. 

Meanwhile for vocational senior high school students, the average cost of education was Rp 7.24 million per year per student. As the central government has allocated Rp 2 million per year per student, the provincial government allocated a Rp 3.2 million scholarship per year for needy students. The remaining Rp 2 million is expected to be funded by the regency administrations. Pastika lamented that although his administration had for years provided scholarships to the island’s needy students, the regional administrations and school committees had failed to communicate the existence of this program to the students. 

“Many students do not know about the scholarships,” he said. To solve that problem, the administration plans to issue special cards for students eligible for the scholarship program. “The card will store data about the amount of money the bearer has and can be used to pay school tuition and other school-related fees.” Besides the general scholarship, the provincial administration has also been providing full-board scholarships for talented students from low-income families since 2011. Each year, 50 selected students from SMKN 1 Denpasar receive scholarships worth Rp 20 million per student. 

The scholarships also cover the student cost of living. The recipients were selected from low-income families throughout Bali. This year, the provincial administration will increase the number of recipients to 90. Since 2011, the provincial administration in cooperation with The Sampoerna Foundation has also funded the establishment and operation of an international standard senior high school for bright students from low-income families. Each year, 75 students are selected to be enrolled at SMA Bali Mandara, which lies on a 10-hectare plot of land in Kubutambahan district, Buleleng. SMA Bali Mandara is a boarding school and the selected students study there without paying anything for tuition or other fees.

source : bali daily