Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) says corruption in the education sector is still rampant and that the government must take action to stop the practices.
The watchdog's coordinator for public services monitoring Ade Irawan told a press conference here Wednesday that corruption was commonplace throughout the republic's education institutions.
"The government has increased its education budget every year, but the money that parents have to pay for their children's education is increasing, too," ICW's coordinator for public services monitoring, Ade Irawan, said.
He asked for an account of government funds dispersal and said corruption had been a common practice among teachers and school principals, as well as in regency/municipality education agencies and the Education Ministry.
"Teachers commit corruption by charging numerous levies to students; principals by embezzling or doubling school budgets; and education agencies by extorting or receiving bribes from schools," Ade said. "The ministry, meanwhile, has allegedly committed corruption through a number of projects."
Watchdog researcher Febri Hendri said a recent ICW study showed the total amount of money parents had to pay for their elementary school children increased by 18.9 percent, from Rp 4.01 million (US$436) per year in 2006 to Rp 4.77 million last year. The raise was despite the increasing government's education budget allocation.
The government set aside 9.1 percent of the state budget, or Rp 44.1 trillion, in 2006 and 11.8 percent of the state budget, or Rp 54.06 trillion, in 2007 for the education sector. In 2008, it has allocated 12.02 percent of the state budget, or Rp 48 trillion.
According to Febri, the increase in school fees was triggered by increases in direct and indirect fees, each of which amounts to 31.9 percent and 68.1 percent of parents' spending for a child's education in 2007, or Rp 1.52 million and Rp 3.25 million, respectively. It means parents have to pay an average of Rp 600,000 per month for a child's education, he said.
Febri said direct fees included charges for courses at schools (in preparation to final exam), exams, building maintenance, textbooks and supplementary books, study tours, re-registration and farewell ceremonies. While indirect fees include fees for school uniforms, transportation to school, stationery, exercise books and after-school courses.
The government allocated Rp 254,000 of financial aids for each student per year in 2007 and 2008 through the School Operational Aid (BOS) program.
Jumono, a parent with the Alliance of Students' Parents Concerned of Transparency in Education Budget, said the yearly raise of education fees was a concern.
"The levies, such as donation and savings levies, are actually incidental – schools don't charge them regularly," he said. "But, if we accumulate such levies for a year, then we'll see how big the amount of money we have to spend for our children's education."
Jumono said many schools had not informed students about financial aid they had actually received from the government.