West Java fights 'pungli' with educational short film: Ghost in School

Bandung, West Java (ANTARA) - Acting Governor of West Java Bey Triadi Machmudin praised the short film titled "Hantu di Sekolah" or "Ghost in School" as an educational way to prevent illegal money collections or pungli.

"The campaign through this short film aims to realize the admission of new students (PPDB) that is safe, smooth, conducive and complying with the existing regulations, and of course free from 'pungli' practices," Machmudin said in the provincial government's statement here on Sunday.

The short film was initiated by the province's Pungli Elimination Task Force as a creative effort to educate the public about the prevention of illegal money collections in education units. Machmudin, who watched the film on Saturday (July 6) at the Sabilulungan Building, Bandung District, commented that the value of honesty must be taught early in a disciplined environment such as schools.

"Therefore, I declared that PPDB 2024 in West Java must be the best nationally, following the rules with no gift-giving and illegal collections," he said.

With these principles, a superior generation and civilized human resources will be born, he said.

"We are saddened because there are unethical practices in admissions (PPDB) that continue to be carried out by parents and students," he added.

The acting governor reiterated the importance of these principles in building good human resources and expressed hope that the PPDB implementation in West Java will be better.

"I hope that there will be no more cheating (in admission) next year, so we can make sure that the admitted students have good morals, integrity, and are fully honest," he said.

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Regarding the film quality, he said that the film was made interesting and easy to understand by students, parents, teachers, principals, and other education personnel. The film screening aimed to educate school citizens about the importance of rejecting pungli in the school environment.

"We hope that this can be our momentum (to begin) honest education from the earliest so that we can get a good generation and leaders in the future," Machmudin said.