The Semarang Education Agency (SEA), Indonesia will relaunch its School Operational Aid (SOA) online programme to increase transparency and prevent the misuse of funds at local elementary and junior high schools.

The SOA online programme was first launched three years ago and will relaunch again on January 16, said Head of Education Office of Semarang, Bunyamin yesterday.

“We have disseminated information on the programme and on the technical supervision of the SOA online programme,” he added.

According to him, the programme will cover all 346 state-run elementary schools and 41 state-run junior high schools in the municipality as well as hundreds of private schools.

The online service includes information such as a recapitulation of each schools’s SOA proposal, decrees approving the proposals, and details on the funds received by each schools, he added.

The Mechanism for the SOA fund distribution have been restored to the system initially put into place three years ago, when the funds were sent directly to recipient schools.

However, the policy was previously changed, resulting in the SOA funds were sent through respective regency or municipal administration budgets. That was why the online programme was also halted, said Bunyamin.

The SOA online programme can be accessed through the website of the SEA (disdik-kotasmg.org).