Govt faulted over education policy

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In many developed countries, if parents refuse to send their children to school to enjoy free education they can be taken to court.

Such a situation is not found in Indonesia, despite the fact that the government is obliged by the amended 1945 Constitution to finance primary education.

The government even imposes financial burdens on parents to finance their children's education. Despite parents not being able to afford to send their children to school due to poverty, the government refuses to accept blame.

Activists have accused the government of trying to avoid their responsibility to provide free, quality education, by making the community shoulder the burden.

Instead of increasing the low national education budget from only six percent of the budget -- among the lowest in the world -- the government has issued policies that critics say shows that it is neglecting the education sector. The Constitution requires that at least 20 percent of the state budget be allocated to education.

Yanti Muchtar of E-net (Education Network) for Justice Indonesia told a recent seminar that the trend towards "privatization" of education has strengthened, resulting in more poverty.

She cited Article 7 of Law No. 20/2003 on the national education system, which obligates parents to provide primary education for their children.

"The law also obliges the community to provide resources to carry out education, as well as putting the responsibility for educational funding on the government, local administrations and the community," Yanti said.

"Whereas, this is all the central government's responsibility."

Other head scratching policies, Yanti added, included subsidy cuts for public universities and turning them into corporations, as well as the draft of a new government regulation on primary and secondary education.

The draft did not stipulate the government's responsibility to provide nine years of free, quality primary education, but instead required the community to shoulder the burden.

"The policies breach the government's own commitments to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in which education-for-all should be achieved by 2015. The government has agreed with the concept that guarantees that every citizen must get a quality and free primary education," Yanti said.

E-net for Justice also revealed that local governments' commitment is no better. For example, the Bogor regency administration has only allocated 3.24 percent of its 2004 budget for education. It also allotted only Rp 100 million for books and libraries, compared to Rp 1.3 billion for civil servants' uniforms.

Meanwhile, Revrisond Baswir of the Anti-Debt Coalition (KAU) said the government has allocated a much larger amount from the state budget to repay foreign debt of around Rp 145 trillion (some US$15.3 billion) per year.

"Compare that to the education budget of only Rp 14 trillion. The biggest allocation of the state budget goes to the national banking system. Clearly, the government's commitment to education is very poor," he said.

Yanti said foreign donors, particularly the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, had contributed to policies of reducing the educational budget because they recommended that poor countries seek alternative funding for education.

"They have argued that poor countries cannot afford to fully finance their educational systems," she said.

It was the donor countries' way of keeping poor countries in debt, she added.

Yanti and Revrisond urged the government to revoke all regulations that did not support citizens' right to get an education, as guaranteed by the Constitution.

The activists also called on people to push for a campaign against foreign debt, so that repayments can instead be allocated to public services, including education.