Ministers face summon over education budget

Ministers face summon over education budget

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives (DPR) is planning to summon economic
ministers and the National Development Planning (Bappenas)
chairman to explain why such a meager budget was allocated for
education in 2003.

House Commission VI for human resources and religious affairs
chairman Muhamadi said Wednesday that his commission would
discuss with the ministers the 2003 education budget, which
stands at roughly 4 percent of the state budget, far below the 20
percent stipulated in the recently amended Constitution.

The public had demanded to hear the government's explanation,
he said.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri unveiled the 2003 state
budget last Friday, allocating just Rp 13.6 trillion for
education.

Members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the
country's highest legislative body, agreed in their Annual
Session earlier this month to endorse amendments to the 1945
Constitution, which stipulates, among other things, that the
government shall allocate a minimum of 20 percent of the state
budget for education.

Muhamadi said the country's education should produce better
quality graduates in the future.

"In this endeavor, what is important for us is hard-working
and knowledgeable citizens, so education concerns all of us and
must be prioritized," Muhamadi was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said the quality of the country's human resources must be
improved and the education budget should be geared towards that
goal.

"We need to prioritize education, and debt payments should
come later," he said. The government allocated close to Rp 80
trillion for debt repayment in 2003.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare Jusuf
Kalla said Wednesday that the country's 2.1 million teachers
would get a salary increase of 10 percent in 2003.

Jusuf Kalla said the salary increase was aimed at improving
teachers' welfare with the hope that their work habits would also
change so that they could produce good quality graduates.

He further said that the government had allocated Rp 400
billion for teachers' education allowance, which would be raised
by 50 percent beginning in October.

The funds, according to Jusuf Kalla, would be taken from the
Special Presidential Funds (Banpres).

He added that poor families would get scholarships for their
children to go to school, free health services and access to an
economic empowerment program. The funds for this program, he
said, would be taken from the fuel subsidy totaling Rp 3.1
trillion.

"So, there will be no more reason for poor families not to
send their children to school, at least to complete the nine-year
compulsory education, because the costs will be paid by the
government," he said.