Agus Maryono, Banyumas – Around 3,000 teachers of private schools in Banyumas, Central Java, have once again complained about the regency administration not paying them an honorarium for the last six months.

Teachers working in private schools in Banyumas are entitled to a monthly functional allowance or honorarium of Rp 350,000 each, which the regency administration has been paying since January last year.

"This is absolutely outrageous. We feel as if we do not even exist," said Teguh Haryanto, a teacher at a private elementary school in Sumbang district.

He said the honorarium was crucial to his livelihood. "We were supposed to receive two payments this October, but so far we have heard nothing about it," he added.

Teguh said the honorarium was usually paid every three months. "The payments were made in 2008, but we have not received any this year," he said.

The honorarium is funded by two layers of administration, the regency and the province. The regency funds Rp 200,000 of the honorarium for each teacher, while the province provides the outstanding Rp 150,000.

Nukman, a teacher at a vocational high school in East Purwokerto, also made the same complaint. He said that the functional allowance had been put in place after being deliberated by the regency administration and the legislative council, and therefore had to be implemented.

"This makes us feel that private school teachers are treated differently to teachers in state-run schools," said Nukman.

Banyumas education agency head Purwadi confirmed the delay in the honorarium payment, saying that the request for payment had been lodged with the regency administration at the beginning of this year.

"I do not know how it has been processed," he said. "I was once informed that the regency administration was experiencing a budget deficit. That was why it had to cancel a number of payments, including the honorarium for private school teachers," Purwadi said.

He added that not only had the honorarium for private school teachers been cancelled, but that the honorarium for the regency's 13,000 public school teachers had also been postponed for two years.

"Last year, we had a Rp 20 billion debt in the form of payments owed to public school teachers, and even up to now, we have only paid 50 percent of them," he said.

Purwadi said he had been tasked with proposing programs to improve education in the regency, but financial matters were beyond his authority. "It's under the authority of the regency's financial agency," he said.