Bali Provincial Government symbolically gave out scholarships card to 106,067 poor students from elementary to vocational high school that can be used to help students so as not to drop out of school.

“Those who get the poor scholarship card is selected by their respective schools because they know more about the condition of their students and we do not limit the quota,” said the Head of Education, Youth and Sports Department (Disdikpora) of Bali Province, Tjokorda Istri Agung Kusuma Wardhani on the sidelines of handing in the scholarship cards to students representatives from various regencies/ city, in Denpasar, on Tuesday.

The total funds set from the budget to provide poor scholarships for 106,067 students this year are more than Rp132, 82 billion. The number of scholarships awarded for each level of education have different amount.

She stated that the scholarships for elementary schools are given to 56,245 students, in which each student gets Rp620 thousands/ year. While in the junior high school level, the scholarships awarded to 20,857 students and each student gets Rp890 thousand/ year.

While each poor student from senior high school gets scholarship of Rp2 million/ year and it is given to 11,085 students. For vocational high school students, each receives Rp3,2 million per year with the total number of recipients is 17,880 students.

“We hope that the students can continue their education remain at the center of economic limitations. Though the government has allocated funds before school operational assistance (BOS) and additional BOS, not a few students who still cannot be met by the educational needs of their parents,” he said.

According to her, the amount of scholarships for vocational school students is more than other levels because it contains practical activities. During this time many children drop out of school because SMK when asked to prepare training materials and practices that require an additional fee.

For those students who received the card, she said, they do not directly receive it in the form of cash, but the scholarships will be distributed through the schools account and subsequently will be delivered to students as needed.

The scholarships for senior high school and vocational high school students can be used for payment of school tuition, practical expenses and personal expenses such as the purchase of books, clothing and transportation expenses and allowances. As for elementary and junior high school students, the scholarship may be used for personal expenses such as buying books, clothes, supporting sports activities, arts and culture, transportation and pocket money.

This poor scholarship card program has been launched by Bali Provincial administration since last year. In 2013, the provincial budget allocated for poor scholarship card is Rp128.91 billion more for 104,587 students.