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

Deputy Speaker 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 20 percent of the state budget (APBN) for education. “The government must be committed to implementing the constitutional mandate that the education budget is at least 20 percent. The government cannot make excuses,” he said in a statement in Jakarta on Wednesday. The statement was made in response to the realisation of the 2025 education budget, which only reached 19.1 percent of total state expenditure. According to Lalu, various technical constraints and spending needs in other sectors should not be used as an excuse to ignore the minimum provisions of the constitutional mandate. He added that the government must be able to develop better fiscal planning so that constitutional obligations can still be met even under emergency conditions. He assessed that the 20 percent education budget allocation is not merely a matter of figures, but an instrument to improve the quality of education, enhance teacher welfare, strengthen educational facilities and infrastructure, expand access to education, and improve the quality of national research and innovation. “The 20 percent education budget aims to maintain and improve the quality of education in Indonesia. Education is the spearhead of national development and progress. Therefore, its fulfilment must not be compromised,” he said. He reminded that a country’s progress is partly determined by the quality of education provided to the younger generation. Therefore, an evaluation of the planning, implementation, and absorption mechanisms of the education budget is necessary. He also requested that all ministries and institutions managing the education budget improve programme readiness so that no budget remains unabsorbed. “Commission X of the DPR RI will continue to oversee that the public’s right to quality education is truly 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 percent of the state budget to education. He made the statement while responding to faction views in Parliament regarding the implementation of mandatory education spending during a plenary session. “The government states that in accordance with the mandate of the 1945 Constitution, the state prioritises an education budget of at least 20 percent of the APBN and APBD to meet the needs of national education delivery,” Purbaya said. The education budget allocation is set annually in the APBN Law at 20 percent and is distributed through three pillars: central government spending, transfers to regions (TKD), and education financing. Although the realisation of the education budget in 2025 was recorded at 19.1 percent of total spending realisation, the government is targeting that the realisation can reach or even exceed 20 percent in 2026.