House Commission X Urges Education Ministry to Prepare Roadmap for Free Private School Ruling

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Chair of House Commission X, MY Esti Wijayati, has reminded the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education to prepare a roadmap for implementing the Constitutional Court ruling that makes education free at private primary and lower secondary schools. MY Esti stated that the Constitutional Court’s ruling requested the decision be realised in stages, but to date, the commission has not received a roadmap outlining the phases for its implementation. “We remind you again that in the additional budget proposed by the Minister, there is no clause relating to the Constitutional Court’s decision, nor is there a roadmap to implement what the ruling entails,” MY Esti said during a working meeting between the ministry and House Commission X in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. “The decisions of Commission X meetings have repeatedly addressed this matter, but there has been no follow-up that we consider sufficiently serious. If it is due to budget limitations, there must still be progress for 2027, for 2028, and beyond; that is the mandate given to all of us,” she stressed. At the same meeting, Minister of Basic and Secondary Education Abdul Mu’ti had earlier proposed an additional budget of Rp40.75 trillion in the Draft State Revenue and Expenditure Budget for Fiscal Year 2027 to support the continuation of priority programmes in education. He explained the proposed additional budget was based on the indicative budget ceiling allocation for FY 2027 submitted by the Ministry of Finance, amounting to Rp58.24 trillion, which was deemed insufficient to meet the funding needs of the ministry’s various work programmes. Consequently, Mu’ti detailed that the proposed additional budget would be used to support several work programmes, including support for 13-year compulsory education amounting to Rp11.928 trillion, teaching and learning quality at Rp22.59 trillion, vocational education and training at Rp3 trillion, language and literature at Rp283.44 billion, and management support at Rp2.95 trillion. For context, in May 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled that the state, in this case the central and regional governments, must provide free basic education at primary schools, lower secondary schools, and madrasahs or equivalent, in both state and private institutions. The court stated the phrase “compulsory education at a minimum at the basic education level without charging fees” in Article 34 paragraph (2) of Law Number 20 of 2003 on the National Education System had caused multiple interpretations and discriminatory treatment, thus contravening the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. Based on this consideration, the court in its ruling amended the norm of the phrase in Article 34 paragraph (2) of the National Education System Law to read: “The Government and regional governments guarantee the implementation of compulsory education at a minimum at the basic education level without charging fees, both for basic education units organised by the government and basic education units organised by the community.”