LPDP Director: Children of Officials or Public Figures Encouraged to Use the Half-Payment Scheme

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP) scholarship is currently under the spotlight, following the viral case of an LPDP alumnus with the initials DS who said, ‘it’s enough that I am an Indonesian citizen, my children don’t need to be.’ With this case going viral, the public is increasingly scrutinising the criteria for scholarship recipients (awardees), after there was also much discussion about children of officials or public figures who also became LPDP awardees.

As is known, some time ago, Mutiara Baswedan was highlighted for receiving an LPDP scholarship. This is because she is the daughter of Anies Baswedan, who was the Governor of DKI Jakarta for the period 2017-2022 and Minister of Education & Culture of the Republic of Indonesia for the period 2014-2016).

Not only the children of officials, a number of public figures have also received the prestigious scholarship. Among them are Tasya Kamila, Maudy Ayunda, and Gita Gutawa. Tasya Kamila, for example, was recently discussed by the public on social media because she uploaded content about ‘a report on her contributions as an LPDP awardee alumnus.’ Many criticised her contributions, which they considered to be insignificant.

This dynamic surrounding LPDP scholarship recipients has become a polemic in itself for the public, given that awardees utilise funds amounting to hundreds of millions, even billions of rupiah, which come from taxes, or public funds.

In response to this, the Director of LPDP, Sudarto, said that they are encouraging people who are children of officials or public figures, or come from affluent families, to choose the partial scholarship option, meaning there is a co-funding scheme between LPDP and the individual awardee.

“Specifically for fathers, mothers, and families who are able, we offer the opportunity for partial funding. This means, as a suggestion, if you are able, choose the non-full funding option, but the partial funding option, where 50 percent is from LPDP and 50 percent is from you. So that we can finance more scholarships,” he explained.

In addition, Sudarto emphasised that LPDP has allocated approximately 25 percent of its scholarship funds to affirmative action scholarships. The recipients of affirmative action scholarships include people who live in the 3T (underdeveloped, frontier, outermost) regions, underprivileged communities, and people with disabilities. LPDP also provides scholarships for people who excel in sports.

“In the last three years, we have tried to allocate around 30 percent. So, this means that because the number of LPDP scholarships is relatively small compared to the number of people who should be in college, which is 29 million, LPDP is indeed focused on finding the top talents in Indonesia to access world-class education, but it must be inclusive,” he explained.