Govt urged to allocate more funds for education

Govt urged to allocate more funds for education

CISARUA, West Java (JP): Indonesia's work force is less
competitive than its overseas counterparts, mainly because of the
government's lack of interest in improving the quality of
national education, an economist said.

Tirta Hidayat, a lecturer at the postgraduate program at the
University of Indonesia, said the government should allocate at
least 2 percent, instead of the current 0.1 percent, of the gross
domestic product to the education sector in order to raise the
standards of the country's human resources to a new height.

"The government must reform the national education system,
provide people with more access to education and improve the
quality of teachers and these cost a lot," Tirta said in a labor
workshop here recently.

Compared to other Asian countries, Indonesia has allocated the
lowest budget to the education sector over the past three
decades, he added.

Reports said developed countries put a staggering 25 percent
of their respective GDP at stake for education, health and social
security.

"In the 1960s, many students from Malaysia, Singapore and
Thailand streamed into Indonesia, but now the situation has
turned upside down with many Indonesians studying in those
countries," he said.

Tirta, the newly appointed chief of the Center for Research
and Planning at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, said
around 21 percent of the country's labor force were uneducated,
22 percent were elementary school dropouts, 38 percent were
elementary school graduates, 17 percent were junior and senior
high school graduates and only less than 2 percent were
university graduates.

Most of the work force were absorbed in the informal sector
and only a small part were employed in formal sectors such as
industry and bureaucracy.

"The poor quality of human resources and the prolonged
economic crisis have taken unemployment to an alarming level and
severely weakened the bargaining power of our workers both at
home and overseas," he said.

He said that of the current 99 million who are in the age
bracket for employment, 6.4 million were jobless and 31.3 million
were working less than 35 hours a week.

These conditions make it impossible for Indonesian workers to
compete with counterparts from other developing countries such as
Malaysia, Thailand, China and the Philippines and more foreign
experts would continue to flow in if the quality of human
resources remained unimproved.

"It is an irony that Indonesia earns around US$3 billion in
remittance from around 1.2 million workers employed overseas
annually while at the same time it pays more than $10 billion to
around 60,000 expatriates working in the country," he said.

He said that education reform was urgent in the face of the
free trade era -- AFTA in 2003, APEC in 2010 and GATT.

"Of course, it has been late but late is better than never,"
he added.

Labor export

In another session of the workshop, Tjeppy F. Aloewie, the
director general for labor placement at the ministry, conceded
that the main obstacle to labor export was a lack of
qualifications among the workers.

"We are facing not only the lack of social and legal
protection for workers, but the fact that they also don't have
the expertise or communication skills nor personal adjustment
skills," he said.

He suggested that the government intensify vocational training
programs for workers before they are sent abroad.

He added that labor exporters should be encouraged to support
the training program and provide legal protection for workers,
especially problematic ones, during their employment overseas.

Meanwhile, Syaufii Syamsuddin, director general for industrial
relations and labor standards, said the government would maintain
the minimum wage policy because of workers' weak bargaining power
and the low quality of human resources.

"Of course, it will better for us if the wage system is
entrusted to the market but it is impossible now because of the
low quality of our workers," he said, adding that most workers
would be underpaid if the remuneration system was determined by
the market.

He said that in line with the implementation of regional
autonomy planned for January 2001, monthly minimum wages would be
set by governors along with local labor unions and chapters of
the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).

"The government will issue a regulation on this matter in the
near future because governors are expected to have announced the
monthly minimum wages next month at the latest and the central
government will no longer intervene in matters of minimum wages,"
he said, citing the labor law which stipulates that minimum wages
must be announced two months before they take effect. (rms)