Jakarta – In an evaluation of the first year's performance of the National Education Ministry, a coalition of activists said it had failed to deal with key problems.

Lody Paat from the Forum of Transformative Pedagogy Study at the Jakarta State University said Thursday that the ministry had failed to provide access to quality education for all.

"The access to free and compulsory primary education for all has yet to be fulfilled," he said. The quality of education, according to Lody, is closely related to the quality of teachers.

"The government does not pay any attention to teacher training institutes. Teachers play an important role in education and these should be well-managed," he said.

Chairwoman of the Jakarta Teachers Forum Retno Listyarti agreed, saying government's policy did not engage a number of substantial problems faced by teachers.

"For example, the only policy related to teachers in the 100-day program of the ministry was one targeting those serving in border and remote areas," she said.

Retno said capacity building for teachers had not been addressed. "Teachers have to struggle alone to enhance their professional capacity. At the same time they have to make both ends meet," she said.

Retno said that government opted to improve the capacity of school principals and supervisors at basic education level, instead of teachers.

Jumono from the Students' Parents Alliance for Education said that the government still did not distribute adequate financial aid to schools.

"The school operational funds provided for elementary schools only cover 30 percent of the total cost needed by each student per year. However, the government always claims its success in fulfilling the schools' needs," he said.

Jumono said data from the research and development division at the ministry showed that each elementary school student needed Rp 1.7 million (US$190) per year, while government gave only Rp 400,000.

"The goal of these funds to help students' parents is not achieved because they still have to pay a lot of money for education. This is even worse for poor parents who cannot afford it," he said.

Ade Irawan, the chairman of the public service monitoring division of Indonesia Corruption Watch said the programs offered by the ministry were not relevant to deal with current educational problems.

"For instance, the government puts Internet provision at schools as one of its priorities. In fact, many schools still do not have electricity, computers or teachers who can operate computers," he said.

Despite criticisms, the ministry is confident about the result of its one-year performance. In a recent report, it said that, for example, the target to provide Internet connections to 100 percent of 17,500 basic schools had actually achieved 105 percent of target, with 18,358 Internet connections installed in 9,937 elementary schools, 5,564 junior high schools, 1,104 Islamic elementary schools, and 1,736 Islamic junior high schools. (lnd)