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n order to meet the higher educational costs faced by schoolchildren, the city administration plans to increase funding for its Jakarta Smart Card (KJP) education-allowance program.

Education Agency head Lasro Marbun said on Thursday that his agency was now calculating a revised amount.

'€œOur initial estimation is about a 30 percent increase from the original amount when the program was launched at the end of 2012,'€ he said.

The KJP, which takes the form of a Bank DKI ATM card, currently allocates Rp 240,000 (US$20.27) to high school students, Rp 210,000 to junior high school students and Rp 180,000 to elementary school students. The funding is provided to meet students'€™ educational needs, including books, uniforms, transportation costs and lunch money.

Many students have complained that the amounts are not enough to meet all their school needs.

Lasro said the proposed 30 percent increase had been reached by considering the increase in the cost of electricity, fuel, school items and inflation.

'€œThe amount will be greater for students in private schools as we plan to scrap education assistance aid [BOP],'€ he said, adding that the BOP funds would be merged with those for the KJP.

Lasro said the city'€™s 2014 budget allocated only Rp 723 billion ($61.28 million) to the KJP program, while the agency needed at least Rp 1.4 trillion.

'€œHence, we will ask for another Rp 700 billion during the budget revision next month,'€ he said, adding that the KJP benefited around 611,000 students in the capital.

Lasro said the budget could increase up to Rp 3 trillion if the amount of funding for each student increased.

Acting Jakarta governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama previously said that the funds given to students were inadequate.

'€œI estimate that a high school student needs at least Rp 500,000 a month for his or her school needs,'€ he said.

Ahok said the administration would also change the mechanism used to select KJP recipients.

'€œIf we use the standard of impoverishment by the Central Statistics Agency [BPS], someone on a salary of Rp 800,000 is not considered impoverished anymore. But this cannot be applied in Jakarta,'€ he said.

The Education Agency will authorize teachers in schools to select KJP recipients. Class teachers will draw up an initial list of prospective students.

A second nomination of recipients will be published in the school for around seven days to obtain feedback from both the public and the agency.

'€œAfter that, parents of children on the list can start producing their request letters. These students will then become eligible for the KJP program'€ Lasro said.

This new mechanism is the reverse of the current process, which calls for parents to apply for the aid by writing a request for assistance letter (SKTM).

The city administration has received a number of reports indicating irregularities in the KJP system, including recipient data manipulation.