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.