Papua drops student fees, hikes teacher salaries

Papua drops student fees, hikes teacher salaries

R.K. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

With new powers under the special autonomy laws, the provincial
legislature in Irian Jaya (Papua) has dropped all fees for
elementary and high school students as of the 2002/2003 academic
year to give children more of an opportunity to receive a quality
education.

Jerry Haurissa, chief of the local education office, said
financial issues had been one of the main problems preventing
school-age children from attending school.

"With the new policy, all Papuan children aged between six and
18 are expected to go to school in attempt to improve the human
resource quality in the province," he told The Jakarta Post here
on Tuesday.

He admitted that various political and military conflicts had
affected schools, by causing many teachers to return to their
home provinces while many students chose to stay home.

"We will hire more and more teachers from other provinces with
higher salaries and interesting incentives to encourage them to
work in remote areas," he said.

Haurissa hailed the 2002 budget which gives a top priority to
the education sector, saying the high budget was expected to be
able to finance all development planning in the education sector.

"The provincial administration has allocated 30 percent, or
more than Rp 183 billion, of the 2002 budget totaling Rp 1.9
trillion for the education sector," he said, saying that in
addition to pushing for the nine-year development planning, that
the local administration would also provide scholarships for
Papuan people to study at home and overseas as well as to
establish vocational training centers for high school graduates
who decided not to go to university.

The province's budget endorsed by the provincial legislative
council on April 24, 2002, increased by more than 300 percent to
Rp 1.9 trillion this fiscal year from the previous Rp 618.5
billion in 2001.

Under the special autonomy, the province was able to retain
some Rp 1.3 trillion, mostly from its profits from exploitation
of natural resources, including the copper and gold mines
controlled by PT Freeport Indonesia, in the province. Previously,
Jakarta kept more than 80 percent of that revenue. Of the figure,
the provincial administration now receives some 60 percent or Rp
760 billion while the remaining Rp 621.9 billion was distributed
among the regency administrations. The province will also receive
some Rp 600 billion from other sources such as taxes and the
state budget to pay civil servants and servicemen employed in the
province.

The chairman of the Papua provincial legislature, John Ibo,
confirmed that the province would give a top priority to the
education and health sectors in efforts to improve the quality of
human resources.

"Besides the education sector, we've allocated Rp 91.5
billion, or 15 percent of the budget for the health sector while
a total of Rp 152.6 billion is to be allocated to help develop
the land transportation networks connecting all regencies and
cities in the province, which is three times the size of Java
Island," he said.

He added that 15 percent, or Rp 122 billion of the budget, was
allocated to develop small- and medium-scale enterprises to
strengthen the province's economy.

Four factions, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle and the National Mandate Party (PAN) had opposed the
budget's draft but, later, accepted it after negotiations among
the factions at the provincial legislature. The draft budget was
prepared in line with the fiscal balanced budget law, but the
special autonomy stipulated by Law. No 11/2000 has yet to be
implemented fully.