Basic and Secondary Education Minister: Minor School Repairs Can Now Use BOS Funds
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Abdul Mu’ti, stated that educational units can now utilise School Operational Assistance (BOS) funds to repair small or minor damages within their respective environments.
According to him, the use of BOS funds can serve as a solution for schools to handle minor damages without having to wait for revitalisation programmes from the central government.
“If there is damage, and it is minor, it can be repaired using BOS funds. The current allocation for the use of BOS funds that we have issued is already very explicit, namely that part of the BOS funds can be used to support operations and can also be used for repairing minor damage in educational units,” he said while opening the Central and Regional Coordination Meeting for the Education Revitalisation and Learning Digitalisation Programme in Jakarta on Friday.
Therefore, he requested that heads of Education Offices and school principals understand the latest regulations regarding the use of BOS funds so that their utilisation can improve the quality of educational services.
“Because of this, we request that heads of offices and regional heads fully understand the provisions regarding the use of BOS funds and ensure that schools can use them as they should, because many school principals still use an old mindset and do not study the new regulations regarding the use of BOS funds, making them fearful of using the budget,” he said.
He added that BOS funds can now also be used to cover electricity bills for every educational unit that receives interactive flat panels (IFP) as part of the learning digitalisation programme.
The use of additional digital devices such as IFPs regularly can increase monthly electricity bills; therefore, his department has prepared a scheme that allows BOS funds to be used to cover these new financing consequences.
“There are indeed consequences when the number of IFPs is increased; the electricity load in each educational unit will be affected. The ministry already has a scheme regulated by Mr Gogot and Mr Tatang so that the financing consequences resulting from the increase of IFPs in schools can be funded using BOS funds,” Mu’ti said.