Jakarta, NU Online
The government has given its assurance it will increase the annual budget for education, insisting, however, that earmarking the allocation at 20 percent, as the 1945 Constitution requires, will be both gradual and indefinite.
National Education Minister Bambang Soedibyo ensured Wednesday that the education sector would be allotted a greater portion of the state budget, as will other key supporting sectors such as transportation and infrastructure.<>
"While education is essential, other sectors are important as well. Take the condition in Papua for example. We can have many well-equipped schools there, but it means nothing if you can't reach them because of no transportation or infrastructure," Bambang said after a ceremony marking National Education Day on Wednesday.
The current 11.8 percent allocation for education in the 2007 state budget, he said, was the biggest slice of the budgetary cake the sector could get in accordance with the requirements of other sectors.
"It's not possible to put aside the needs of other sectors solely to throw 20 percent of our budget into education," Bambang said.
The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that the 11.8 percent allocation contradicted the amended Constitution, which required the allocation to be at 20 percent, and thus had no legal weight.
It was the third time the Court has issued such a verdict upon examining three different laws filed by a number of parties, the latest being the 2006 Law on the 2007 State Budget.
As the government understands it, Bambang said, the Court's verdict was versatile, in the sense that it consistently obliged the state to meet the required percentage of educational funding, as well as acknowledged that this relied on the state's budgetary condition.
"We believe the verdict means that the Court wants to see 20 percent for education in the state budget, but that it sees the reality that our financial situation is unable to do that," he said.
In 2006, the government allocated Rp 44.1 trillion (US$4.86 billion), or 9.1 percent of the national budget, for education. The allocation was raised this year to Rp 54.06 trillion ($5.95 billion).
Most of the country's annual expenditure over the past years has been aimed at paying back foreign principal debts and interest, as well as the defense sector and infrastructure.
The latest lawsuit at the Constitutional Court was filed by the Indonesian Teachers' Union and several parents who said the current education budget was not in line with the international convention on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's recommendations on national education funding.
The litigants also claimed the government had failed to implement compulsory basic education, which should be fully financed by the state. (tjp/dar)
The government has given its assurance it will increase the annual budget for education, insisting, however, that earmarking the allocation at 20 percent, as the 1945 Constitution requires, will be both gradual and indefinite.
National Education Minister Bambang Soedibyo ensured Wednesday that the education sector would be allotted a greater portion of the state budget, as will other key supporting sectors such as transportation and infrastructure.<>
"While education is essential, other sectors are important as well. Take the condition in Papua for example. We can have many well-equipped schools there, but it means nothing if you can't reach them because of no transportation or infrastructure," Bambang said after a ceremony marking National Education Day on Wednesday.
The current 11.8 percent allocation for education in the 2007 state budget, he said, was the biggest slice of the budgetary cake the sector could get in accordance with the requirements of other sectors.
"It's not possible to put aside the needs of other sectors solely to throw 20 percent of our budget into education," Bambang said.
The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that the 11.8 percent allocation contradicted the amended Constitution, which required the allocation to be at 20 percent, and thus had no legal weight.
It was the third time the Court has issued such a verdict upon examining three different laws filed by a number of parties, the latest being the 2006 Law on the 2007 State Budget.
As the government understands it, Bambang said, the Court's verdict was versatile, in the sense that it consistently obliged the state to meet the required percentage of educational funding, as well as acknowledged that this relied on the state's budgetary condition.
"We believe the verdict means that the Court wants to see 20 percent for education in the state budget, but that it sees the reality that our financial situation is unable to do that," he said.
In 2006, the government allocated Rp 44.1 trillion (US$4.86 billion), or 9.1 percent of the national budget, for education. The allocation was raised this year to Rp 54.06 trillion ($5.95 billion).
Most of the country's annual expenditure over the past years has been aimed at paying back foreign principal debts and interest, as well as the defense sector and infrastructure.
The latest lawsuit at the Constitutional Court was filed by the Indonesian Teachers' Union and several parents who said the current education budget was not in line with the international convention on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's recommendations on national education funding.
The litigants also claimed the government had failed to implement compulsory basic education, which should be fully financed by the state. (tjp/dar)
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