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