TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Starting the 2013/2014 academic year, Jakarta Provincial government implemented a zone-based enrollment system for primary through high school levels. Head of Jakarta Regional Education office, Taufik Yudi Mulyanto stated that the objective was to manage the school distribution.

"The enrollment process will become more open and objective," said Taufik at City Hall, Saturday, June 8. The zone-base system will integrate all enrollments into one network system.

Taufik explained that the system will divide the zones into three levels based on educational levels. The primary level will be on a village zone, whereas junior high level will be on sub district level, and senior high will be on rayon level (several sub districts).

Each school must allocate 45 percent of their quotas for students in their zone. For example, a junior high school in Palmerah Sub District must allocate 45 percent of their quotas for the local people of its region.

Students have to enroll to a school based on the identity card of their parents, otherwise the system will automatically block their enrollment. This way, it also helps manage the government population database.

Another feature of this system is parents can enroll their children on-line, therefore the enrollment deadline can be monitored periodically.

This new enrollment system is divided into two phases, i.e., the pre-enrollment period which starts on June 18-21 and followed by the zone-base system on July 1-3. During the pre-enrollment period, students can enroll cross area. All applicants will then be verified from June 19-21. The announcement will then take place on June 26, and students who are accepted should re-register the next day.

"Students who fail on the first round, still stand a chance to apply during the zone-base enrollment system," he said. The pre-enrollment system will be open from July 1-3, and being verified on July 4-5. The announcement will be on July 10, and those who pass can re-register the next day.

With this enrollment system, Taufik reminded parents to be thoughtful in setting up a strategy. They may not make mistakes in entering data during registration, because after the verification period, all data will be locked.

SYAILENDRA