Bigger education budget 'not feasible'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lawmakers have turned a cold shoulder to the Constitutional Court's ruling that obliges the government to increase the education budget, citing financial constraints as their rationale.

Emir Moeis, who heads the House of Representative's state budgetary committee, said the issue had to be viewed pragmatically as the funds simply were not there.

"We still have high subsidies for fuel, electricity, agriculture and so on. If we are pushed to increase the budget allocation to 20 percent, we're going to either have a large budget deficit or budget cutting for other sectors," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday in its judicial review of the national education law that the government must allocate at least 20 percent of the state budget and regional budgets for education.

The percentage is in accordance with the amended 1945 Constitution, and should take effect in 2006 instead of a gradual increase as initially planned by the government.

The court noted that this country's education system was lagging behind others in the region in terms of quality, and thus its improvement should be a priority.

"We haven't decided on the budget allocation yet, but technically, it's impossible to reach 20 percent. Unless, we want to go deeper into debt," said Emir, who hails from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

The government had for this year allocated Rp 24.6 trillion (around US$2.4 billion) -- 9.29 percent of the total expenditures -- for the education sector through the national education and religious affairs ministries, which is a 33 percent increase from its allocation last year.

While the amount seems larger, it is actually lower by percentage as the government's revised expenditures had also increased to Rp 411.6 trillion.

For the 2006 state budget, the government has proposed a total of Rp 31.3 trillion for the education sector, from the government's Rp 375 trillion planned expenditures.

Legislator Andi Matalatta, who heads the Golkar faction in the House said that while the 20 percent allocation seemed an impossibility, other ministries would also budget for education- related activities.

"We're doing all we can to fight for the amount (20 percent). But we have to look at the state's financial ability. Besides, there are many efforts to improve the quality of human resources, not just through the national education ministry. Other ministries also have education and training programs," he said.