Surabaya Uses Special App for Registering New Students

KOMPAS/IQBAL BASYARI

A man checks the New Student Admission (PPDB) website for registration at a junior high school in Surabaya, East Java, on Thursday (20/6/2019).

SURABAYA, KOMPAS —The Surabaya Education Office is to use a special application to simplify the registration of new students at elementary and junior high schools in the city. The new application is expected to help parents in registering their children without any difficulties through an online platform.

Surabaya Education Office head Supomo said in Surabaya on Tuesday that all new student registration in 2020 would be carried out entirely online. The office would not conduct face-to-face registration like it did last year, in order to avoid crowds and to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

To help the parents of prospective new students to follow the registration stages easily, the Surabaya Education Office has developed a new registration application specifically for new elementary and junior high school students. The apps are called PPDB SD Surabaya for new elementary school students and PPDB SMP Surabaya for new junior high school students.

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The mobile applications, which are available for downloading to mobile devices using the Android operating system, provides information on registration steps, requirements, and admissions results (names of accepted students), and other relevant information.

"The parents of prospective new students should log in to use this application so that they can also register suing a mobile device, not just on a PC or laptop,“ Supomo said.

They don’t need to come to the [education] office, because we have provided contact numbers for help services

The PPDB apps offer parents more digital options for enrolling their children at schools in the East Java capital. Aside from mobile devices, parents can also register their children online at https://ppdbsd.surabaya.go.id for elementary school students and at https://ppdb.surabaya.go.id for junior high school students.

"If the parents of prospective new students have questions or meet with difficulty during the registration process, they don’t need to come to the [education] office, because we have provided contact numbers for help services," said Supomo.

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KOMPAS/IQBAL BASYARI

Junior high school students in Surabaya, East Java, wash their hands in a sink provided by the Surabaya city government on Friday (6/3/2020).

Registration of new students will open on 15 June this year. Students are accepted based on four standards consisting of the zoning system (the proximity of a student’s home to the preferred school, verification (for poor households), transfer students, and academic achievement (grades). Each standard carries a specific quota, with a 50 percent quota for the zoning system, 30 percent for academic achievement, 15 percent for verification, and 5 percent for transfer students.

Supomo reminded parents to accept the results of the PPDB admissions system, including when their children were not accepted. The capacity of state schools in Surabaya for admitting new students was limited, so that not all new students could be accepted. Those students who were not admitted could register at private schools. "All stages of [admissions] assessment are carried out transparently," he said.

Education is one of the major programs, because it is the key to eliminating poverty

Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini said that the registration procedure for new students was based on Surabaya Mayoral Regulation No. 21/2020 on the registration of new students at the elementary and junior school levels during the COVID-19 epidemic. Parents could download and read the regulation as a reference for new student registration.

As it did last year, the Surabaya administration was scrapping tuition for students attending state elementary and junior high school. The administration had also readied scholarships for students from underprivileged families so they could pursue their education through the university level.

"Education is one of the major programs, because it is the key to eliminating poverty," said Risma.