Budget for 'pesantren'

Budget for 'pesantren'

From Koran Tempo

The intricate problems the nation is facing are caused in party by a weak civil society as the government's partner, which is in turn caused by the low quality of human resources.

One of the reasons for the inferior workforce is young people graduating from traditional Islamic boarding schools (pesantren), which lack standardized education and are religious oriented, without teaching the sciences.

Parents send their children to these schools mostly because they cannot afford to pay fees for a formal education, apart from the fact that some want their children to receive religious training. It is therefore impossible to make formal education compulsory for all pesantren students.

The government's commitment to allocate up to 20 percent of the state budget to education in 2009 deserves praise. In my view, a portion of this money should go for the qualitative and quantitative promotion of education in remote areas, particularly for traditional pesantren.

In this way, traditional schools will also provide an education that meets national standards and issue formal diplomas, which are very useful for their students' employment as well as further studies.

IMAM PITOYO, Bogor, West Java