Government Must Commit to 20 Percent Education Budget Mandate from State Budget

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Chairman of Commission X of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), Lalu Hadrian Irfani, has stressed that the government must be fully committed to implementing the mandate of the 1945 Constitution regarding the allocation of at least 20 per cent of the state budget (APBN) to education.

“The government must be committed to implementing the constitutional mandate that the education budget be at least 20 per cent. The government must not make excuses,” he said in a statement issued in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The statement was made in response to the realisation of the 2025 education budget, which reached only 19.1 per cent of total state expenditure.

According to Lalu, technical obstacles or spending needs in other sectors must not be used as reasons to ignore the minimum requirement enshrined in the constitution.

He added that the government must be able to draw up better fiscal planning so that this constitutional obligation can still be met even in emergency conditions.

He viewed the 20 per cent education budget allocation as not merely a matter of numbers, but as an instrument to improve the quality of education, enhance teachers’ welfare, strengthen educational facilities and infrastructure, broaden access to education, and improve the quality of national research and innovation.

“The 20 per cent education budget aims to safeguard and improve the quality of education in Indonesia. Education is the spearhead of the nation’s development and progress. Therefore, its fulfilment must not be compromised,” he said.

He reminded that a nation’s progress is determined, among other things, by the quality of education provided to the younger generation. For this reason, the mechanisms for planning, implementing and absorbing the education budget need to be evaluated.

In addition, he also called on all ministries and agencies managing education budgets to improve programme readiness so that no budget is left unspent.

“Commission X of the DPR RI will continue to oversee this to ensure that the public’s right to quality education is genuinely supported by budget policies in accordance with the constitutional mandate,” he said.

Previously, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa assured that the government remains committed to fulfilling the constitutional mandate to allocate a minimum of 20 per cent of the state budget to education.

He made the statement in response to the views of parliamentary factions regarding the implementation of the mandatory spending allocation for the education budget during a plenary session of the DPR RI.

“The government states that, in accordance with the mandate of the 1945 Constitution, the state prioritises an education budget of at least 20 per cent of the APBN as well as the regional budget (APBD) to meet the needs of national education provision,” Purbaya said at the DPR plenary session in Jakarta on Tuesday (14/7).

The education budget allocation is set each year at 20 per cent in the State Budget Law and is channelled through three pillars: central government spending, transfers to the regions (TKD), and education financing.

Although the realisation of the education budget in 2025 was recorded at 19.1 per cent of total spending, the government is targeting realisation to reach, or even exceed, 20 per cent in 2026.

According to the Finance Minister, the government continues its efforts to optimise education budget realisation from year to year.