Students demand cheap education for all

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.