Golkar Faction: BOS Funds Must Reflect Real Educational Needs

The Chairman of the Golkar Party Faction in the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), M. Sarmuji, has urged that the determination of the School Operational Assistance (BOS) fund amount should refer to the real needs of education delivery, so that the resulting policy is more targeted and equitable. Sarmuji stated that the approach to drafting the education budget must begin by calculating the true cost of education, which is then aligned with state budget support. “So far, we have set the BOS based on the available budget, then asked whether it is sufficient. The more honest question should be reversed: how much is needed, then we determine how much must be provided. Behind the word ‘free’, there is a burden that has been silently borne by families and honorary teachers. It is time we fix the way we calculate,” Sarmuji said in a written statement in Jakarta on Monday. This was conveyed by Sarmuji at a National Education Seminar entitled ‘Optimising Education Unit Costs as a Basis for Determining Decent and Equitable Education Costs’ at the parliamentary complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Monday. The seminar was attended by around 200 school principals, teachers, school committee members, and education observers from the Greater Jakarta area. He stated that a study compiled by the Golkar Faction from data from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (2024), a Ministry of Education and Culture Policy Brief (2020), and data from the Central Statistics Agency shows that the cost of educating a child comprises three components: school operational costs, educator costs, and costs that must still be borne by families. “For the primary school level, for example, if these three layers are added up, the actual decent cost reaches around Rp18 million per child per year. Meanwhile, the BOS received by schools is only Rp900,000,” Sarmuji said. In addition, the study also identified the need to refine the BOS scheme to better consider the characteristics of educational units and regional conditions. According to him, the financing needs of vocational schools differ between fields of expertise, while schools in areas with geographical challenges require greater operational cost support. Sarmuji assessed that education policy formulation needs to be based on data and real conditions on the ground to strengthen equitable access and quality of education across various regions. From this seminar, the Golkar Faction hopes to produce two concrete documents: a formulation of policy recommendations to be submitted to the government, and a record of discussion results that can serve as a reference for BOS and Educational Unit Operational Assistance (BOSP) policy discussions in the upcoming budget cycle.