Scholarships still provided despite global economic crisis

Tifa Asrianti, Triwik Kurniasari, and Anisa Basuki, The Jakarta Post,  Jakarta    

The city administration will still provide scholarships to gifted and dedicated students, especially those requiring financial assistance, despite the U.S.-led economic crisis, an official says. 

Jakarta Middle and High Education Agency head Margani Mustar said the crisis would not affect the agency's scholarship program. 

"The National Education Ministry has made it a priority program so it is using state budget funds. I'm sure the global economic crisis will not affect the ministry's policy and the scholarship program," Margani said. 

The agency gives scholarships to 45,600 high school and university students, or 12 percent of the 380,000 students recorded at the agency, he said. 

"Besides scholarships from the agency, several foundations provide scholarships through us." 

In 2008, 400 university students received scholarships from the agency, 34,000 vocation school students received scholarships from the central government and 8,000 state high school students received scholarships from foundations, he said. 

Students eligible for scholarships were high achievers from low-income families, Margani said. The agency obtains the eligible recipients' names from school principals, he added. 

During economic crises, there is a tendency for companies and institutions to cut items from their budget, for example corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, to curb expenses. 

But this kind of crisis has not affected the Sampoerna Foundation's scholarship program, the foundation's senior media relations officer, Agatha Simanjuntak, said. 

The foundation has made a commitment and will continue supporting the education sector no matter what happens, she said. 

"There will be reduction of funding on regular programs provided for elementary, junior high and senior high school students," Agatha said. 

"There will be no reduction of scholarships for bachelor's and master's programs for local and overseas in the near future." 

Besides the regular programs, she said, the foundation welcomed companies or people to help fund its programs. 

Sampoerna creates a model program, like training for teachers or principals, before offering them to companies or individuals, she said. 

The foundation has at least 80 partners, Sampoerna public relations officer Silfia Febrina said. 

"Our partners have a strong commitment to supporting our programs, so up to now we have faced no problem with the global economic crisis," Silfia said. 

The crisis has not reduced foreign countries spending aimed at providing Indonesian students with equal opportunity to access quality education. 

Katsunori Tsunoda from Japanese Embassy said the Japanese government was committed to providing full scholarships to deserving students every year. 

He said the scholarships covered registration fees, test fees, tuition, return flight tickets and monthly allowances. 

Every April, the Japanese government sends more than 160 Indonesian students to study in Japan, Tsunoda said. 

The Japanese government offers various scholarship programs for research, undergraduate, technical college, professional training college, teacher's college and Japanese studies students, he said. 

The students take Japanese for the first six months before joining classes, he added. 

M.K Singh from the Jawaharlal Nehru Indian Cultural Center said the Indian government was fully committed to providing scholarships to Indonesian students. 

"It is not going to be affected or curtailed by the prevailing global economic crisis," Singh said. 

"So feel free to apply for our scholarship programs, including Training under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC), Colombo Plan and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)."

All expenses in connection with the recipients' studies, including international travel costs and living expenses, are borne by the Indian government, he said.