Students demand cheap education for all

Slamet Susanto and Rusman, Yogyakarta/Samarinda

Hundreds of students staged protests in Yogyakarta and Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on Tuesday to demand the government pay more attention to education in the country.

In the protest, held in conjunction with National Education Day on May 2, the students criticized the government for failing to put a minimum of 20 percent of its annual budget into education as required by the amended 1945 Constitution.

In Yogyakarta the protests were held at two universities, the State University of Yogyakarta (UNY) and Gadjah Mada University (UGM).

UNY rector Suyanto led the protest held in front of his office, which was attended by dozens of university staff and hundreds of students. In his speech, the rector called on the government to bring down the cost of tuition to make education more accessible to the poor.

"The cost of studying has become more expensive in the past few years and the government needs to create a subsidy system to ensure people can afford it. This problem must be addressed soon if lawmakers want improve the quality of Indonesian human resources," Suyanto said.

To achieve that goal, the government should put at least 20 percent of its budget into education, he said.

Only few kilometers from the UNY campus, dozens of UGM students held a protest in front of University Avenue, demanding the university to put a stop to its widespread practice of imposing illegal fees on students.

Meanwhile, in Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan, students staged a protest in front of the compound of the East Kalimantan Governor's office. Besides calling for cheaper tuition and an increased education budget they also demanded the government improve the welfare of teachers, who were paid less than other professionals.

The East Kalimantan provincial government has allocated more than Rp 3 trillion in its budget for development in the province this year but only Rp 85 billion, or less than 3 percent, is earmarked for education.

The protest began at 11 a.m and the students dispersed peacefully at 12.30 p.m, after waiting in vain for government officials to meet them and discuss their concerns.