Establishing team on education financing essential, commission says

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Commission on education proposed on Tuesday the establishment of a team on education financing with the aim of helping the Ministry of National Education formulate budget allocations for education.

Ninasapti Triaswati, a member of the commission, said that the team was expected to help improve the bargaining position of the education ministry in proposing budget allocations for education before the House of Representatives.

The proposal for the establishment of the team was made because of the limited budget allocations for education, which had led to the poor state of the education system in the country, Nina said.

According to the commission's earlier report, Indonesia spends only about one percent of its gross domestic product on education, far below the 4.5 to 7 percent spent in developed countries or 2.5 to 7.5 percent in other developing countries.

Nina, who is also the head of the Department of Economic and Development Studies at the University of Indonesia, said that the team could also be allowed to formulate a strategy on how best to distribute the funds from the central government to the local administrations and finally to schools.

"The team will not only work on how to push the budget for education, but also on how to allocate the budget. Problems in education financing relate not only to the small size of the funds, but also to improper fund allocation," Nina said, adding that the team would also be called upon to identify alternative funding sources for education.

Apart from these duties, the team would also formulate a strategy for improving the quality of education and to ensure education equality for all levels of society, Nina said.

According to Nina, the proposal is still awaiting a green light from Minister for National Education Abdul Malik Fajar.

The commission is also proposing the development of a mechanism to finance education through "block grants" to schools.

Under this scheme, the grants would be given directly to schools. The headmaster would then work closely with a school committee consisting of representatives of students' parents and local community leaders to plan expenditure on school activities.

"The public participation is expected to help ensure transparency and public accountability to prevent the misappropriation of funds," Nina added.

The commission is currently conducting a study in 10 cities throughout the country to formulate a plan for education financing.

Meanwhile, Afan Gaffar, a noted scholar at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University and also an expert consultant advising the commission, said that it was time for the central government to encourage the regional administrations to make a political commitment to pay more attention to education by raising the percentage of the education budget in their general allocation funds.