Govt admits failure in education

Govt admits failure in education

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government continues to violate the Constitution by failing
to allocate 20 percent of the state budget for national
education.

However, this constitutional violation carries no legal
sanctions, unless lawmakers use it to censure the government --
the President in particular.

Earlier this year, the Constitutional Court ruled the
government violated the Constitution when it earmarked just 9.6
percent of the budget for education in 2005.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono acknowledged here on Sunday
economic conditions would again prevent the government from
allocating 20 percent of next year's budget for education.

However, the education budget will increase to 12 percent of
the total state budget in 2006. The government has said it plans
to increase the education budget each year so that it is 20
percent of the total state budget by 2010.

During a speech at the close of the UNESCO-sponsored
International Conference on Education as a Fundamental Human
Right and Finance Framework, Susilo blamed soaring global oil
prices for his administration's failure to increase the education
budget to 20 percent of the state budget.

"The 20 percent target could not be achieved because we have
to allocate so much money for the fuel subsidy due to higher
global oil prices. And we also need money for poverty eradication
and health care," the President said.

The government raised fuel prices by an average of 126 percent
in October to ease the strain on the state budget caused by the
massive fuel subsidy.

Susilo pointed out in his speech the government had disbursed
Rp 5 trillion (some US$5 billion) for basic education in 2005.

If the government hopes to achieve its goal of providing basic
education for at least 95 percent of all children by 2008/2009
and of halving the illiteracy rate among people above the age of
15 within the next five years, it will have to continue to spend
more money on education.

"We are determined to create a more educated populace in a
more competitive and democratic Indonesia, because human
resources determine whether nations win or lose in the era of
globalization," Susilo said.

Minister of National Education Bambang Sudibyo said Indonesia
had demonstrated to the world its belief that education is a
basic right of all citizens.

"Our national education system requires the government to
provide a free education for citizens," he said following the
conference's closing ceremony.