Economists criticize new move to boost spending on education<\/p>\n
A'an Suryana and M. Nunung Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Economists say that an article in the newly amended Constitution
\nstipulating that the central and regional governments allocate 20
\npercent of their budgets for education would not be feasible
\nwithout hefty spending cuts on other sectors like health and
\ninfrastructure.<\/p>\n
\"The government will not be able to meet the target in the
\nnear future,\" Centre for Strategic and International Studies
\n(CSIS) economist Pande Radja Silalahi told The Jakarta Post on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the new target was three times larger than
\nthe previous target of 7 percent of the state budget.<\/p>\n
\"Education is, of course, important as it is a human
\ninvestment. But it will be impossible to meet the target in the
\nnear future as our state budget suffers a deficit,\" said Pande.<\/p>\n
The 2002 state budget deficit is projected at 2.5 percent of
\ngross domestic product. The relatively huge deficit is a result
\nof the massive government bailout of ailing banks during the late
\n1990s financial crisis.<\/p>\n
Pande also said that a 20 percent budget allocation was
\nrelatively high as in developed countries like the U.S. only 15
\npercent to 20 percent of the budget was allocated for education.<\/p>\n
The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ended its Annual
\nSession on Sunday and reached agreement on changes to the 1945
\nConstitution.<\/p>\n
One of the amended articles in the Constitution is Article 31
\non education, which rules that the state budget and regional
\ngovernment budgets must allocate 20 percent of their spending on
\neducation.<\/p>\n
Pande said that forcing the government to allocate 20 percent
\nof its budget for education would sacrifice spending on other
\nvery important sectors like health and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\"The allocation (for education) should not be too high, as
\nthere are still other important programs, like health and
\ninfrastructure, which need a huge amount of funds,\" he said.<\/p>\n
University of Indonesia economist Mohammad Ichsan concurred,
\nsaying that the new ruling would also create serious trouble for
\nregional governments whose top priority was not education.<\/p>\n
He pointed out as an example that Jakarta's top priority was
\nnot education as the literacy rate here was already relatively
\nhigh.<\/p>\n
He added that putting a specific target on budget allocations
\nfor the education sector would make the government less flexible
\nin designing the state budget.<\/p>\n
\"The (budget) target should not be specified. Every region has
\nits own priorities, and it might be inefficient if one region is
\nforced to allocate at least 20 percent of the budget for
\neducation, while it has a higher priority than education,\" said
\nIchsan.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, economist at the Institute for Development,
\nEconomic and Finance (Indef) Didik Rachbini supported the new
\nmove for higher spending on education because it would help
\nimprove the quality of the people.<\/p>\n
He explained that the new ruling would not necessarily
\nthreaten spending on other sectors because the government could
\nforce indebted bank owners to repay their huge debts to the
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
\"This money could be used for higher spending on education,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Education expert Arief Rachman urged the government to
\nintroduce measures to make sure that the higher budget allocation
\nreally went to improve the quality of education in the country.<\/p>\n
\"In the past, the education budget often went to research and
\ndevelopment departments at other ministries outside the Ministry
\nof Education and Culture,\" he said.<\/p>",
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