Education budget criticized

Education budget criticized

JAKARTA: An educationist has criticized the administration of
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for lacking the commitment to boost the
country's education sector.

Chairman of the Indonesian Pedagogy Association Sudiyarto said
that the administration had failed to boost funding for the
education sector to at least 20 percent of the state budget as
stipulated under the country's amended Constitution and Law No.
20/2003 on education.

Speaking at a discussion held on Saturday to evaluate the
performance of Susilo and his Vice President Jusuf Kalla after
one year in office, Sudiyarto said that the government had
instead decided to take a gradual approach to meet the target.

For this year, the government has only allocated 8.2 percent
of the state budget for the education sector, an amount that
would gradually increase during the next couple of years to reach
the 20 percent target by 2009.

He said that increasing the budget allocation for the
education sector was urgent and should have become the
government's top priority in order for the country to catch up
with its neighboring countries. --Antara