Jakarta – Corruption watchdogs and concerned citizens on Wednesday complained of weak policy, poor management and financial irregularities in the education sector.

Roy Salam of the Indonesian Forum for Budgetary Transparency (FITRA) said the 12 percent allocation for the education budget, taken out of the total 2008 national budget, failed to ensure free public education.

The state-sponsored school operational fund provides Rp 254,000 (US$27.60) per year for each elementary school student and Rp 354,000 for junior high school students. This covers only 30 percent of the cost of their education.

Ade Irawan of the Education Coalition said: "The ideal figure should be Rp 1.8 million per elementary school student per year and Rp 2.7 million for each junior high school student per year to get them free access to education."

"Even if the tuition is free, all kind of fees for this and that, like the mandatory purchase of new textbooks each year, are demanded," Jumono, the father of a student at Malakajaya 19 state elementary school in Klender, East Jakarta, said.

Ade pointed out still another problem with the operational fund. "We don't even know how many schools refuse this operational fund, so we also don't know where the unused money goes," he said.

National Education Ministry spokesman Bambang Wasito Adi, however, said the ministry reported which schools were willing to take the funds to the Finance Ministry, which then transferred the money directly to those schools.

"If the budget given to us exceeds the needs, we return it to Finance Ministry," he said.

Ade said the real problem was the government does not have a strong commitment to allocating up to 20 percent of the budget for education.

"They seem to care little about long-term investments like education, and instead put more concern on short-term investments," he said.

In order to address this problem, private sector organizations like Sampoerna Foundation have established various programs to improve access to education and upgrade quality.

Lin Che Wei, chief executive officer of Sampoerna Foundation, said: "We hope the Sampoerna Foundation programs will accommodate the need to provide access to higher education, which the government does not offer free of charge, for the most disadvantaged people in Indonesia." (rff)