THE EFFECT OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION ON PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE OF ZONING-BASED NEW STUDENT ADMISSION SYSTEM

The Ministry of Education and Culture's policy on the zoning-based New Student Admission system that began to be implemented in 2017 has caused pros and cons. People argue that the policy is indicated to not gain acceptance from some parents of students as the main stakeholders. Departing from the alleged weak public communication implemented by local government sub-organizations. This study aims to reveal how strong the influence of public communication competence applied to public acceptance. The location of the research is South Tangerang City, Banten Province, Indonesia. As a sample of 120 parents of students whose children attend elementary schools, junior high schools in 3 sample districts, namely; Ciputat, Pamulang and Serpong were drawn randomly. Data was collected by distributing a closed questionnaire and the results were processed using the Simple Linear Regression statistical technique. The results of the study showed that public communication (X) had a positive, strong and significant effect on public acceptance (Y) related to the implementation of the policy of accepting new students based on the zoning system. It is recommended that the South Tangerang City government improve its public communication strategy, especially in terms of message packaging and the use of social media.