Fuel subsidy savings go to poor students

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of National Education, which has secured Rp 673.4 billion from the state's fuel subsidy reduction, will spend most of the funds in financing the education of 3.6 million poor students.

Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin announced on Thursday that some of the Rp 608.4 billion would also be allocated to 3,500 elementary schools, 2,030 junior high schools and 685 senior high schools all over the country that needed to improve their educational facilities. The fund would cover the recipients' needs for a six-month period.

"The students and the schools will receive the support in September," he said.

He pledged that the disbursement and use of the aid would be closely monitored by his ministry, the project's regional committee and also the public.

The government reduced the fuel subsidy last month.

Addressing the participants of a workshop at his office, Yahya added that the project would be integrated with the ministry's annual social safety net, which gives scholarships and supports schools' operations for the poor.

Those to receive the special funds are limited to students from first-grade to fourth-grade at elementary schools, and the first-grade students of junior and senior high schools.

Students of the other grades are recipients of the ministry's social safety net program.

The ministry has earmarked Rp 60,000 for each of the 2.2 million elementary students, while each of the 1 million junior high school students will receive twice that amount. A total of 400,000 high school students will get Rp 150,000 each.

Another Rp 15 billion from the fuel subsidy savings will also be allocated to 8,600 selected poor university students and more than 7,200 others who have been victims of rioting or conflicts occurring in several regions of the country.

The remaining Rp 50 billion will be disbursed to students and tutors of the government's informal education that is offered to illiterates and also as support for street children.

However, Yahya said, the ministry was still looking for the right target and the right institution to manage and to oversee the allocation of the funds for the street children, since there had yet to be reliable data on their numbers.

"We're still working with the National Board of Social Welfare (BKSN) and non-governmental organizations concerned with the issue to find a way of measuring this systematically," he told journalists.

He also revealed that another Rp 160 billion of the fuel subsidy savings that had been earmarked for the ministry of religion would also be integrated into the program to help finance 819 Islamic schools and their students.

"Hopefully this program will continue in January 2002 as there are still more than 1 million students who have dropped out of school, either because they cannot afford it or because they live in conflict-torn regions," Yahya remarked.

The state budget for education for the year of 2001 is Rp 13 trillion. (bby)