Education ministry restarts assistance to needy students

Education ministry restarts assistance to needy students

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of National Education has decided
to continue with need-based scholarships after being appropriated
an additional Rp 600 billion (US$80 million) in the newly
approved 2000 budget.

The ministry in a statement here on Thursday said it would
maintain its program of financial assistance to 135,730
university students and 3.9 million school students across the
country.

The additional funding also will be used to continue
subsidies to privately run schools.

With the advent of the economic crisis in 1998, the ministry
announced a program to provide Rp 60,000 in monthly financial
assistance to individual students on the condition they also
worked on campus.

The government also extended additional operational assistance
to state universities during the crisis. The assistance also will
continue.

Despite deciding to continue the assistance programs until at
least December, the ministry stressed it would eventually
eliminate the aid.

The initial draft of the 2000 state budget allocated some Rp
11 trillion to the ministry.

The additional allocation was made after there was an
adjustment in the budget's overall expected revenue based on oil
price increases.

The approved budget, which covers a nine-month period until
the end of December, allocates Rp 11.7 trillion for the education
sector, an 11 percent increase from the 1999/2000 budget which
covered 12 months.

The ministry also will secure Rp 1.4 trillion for its routine
expenditures to help raise the salaries of teachers and
lecturers.

However, it is unclear whether the ministry will go ahead with
its controversial decision to abolish subsidies to state
universities. (dja)