Jakarta – Poor students continue to be denied education because the government is not properly monitoring how schools spend their education budget allocations, consumer groups and activists say.

Sudaryatmo from the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said despite the increased budget for national education this year, schools continued to pass on illegal fees to students.

"Currently the government lets schools decide crucial problems, including their budget allocations," he told a discussion Tuesday on National Education Day.

This had allowed schools to continue to charge high fees despite a constitutional requirement mandating free education for all students to the end of junior high school level, he said. A lack of monitoring of these boards meant schools were often misusing their education budgets, he said.

This year, the government allocated Rp 36.7 trillion (about US$4.2 billion), or 8 percent of the national budget, to education, a more than 100 percent increase from the Rp 16 trillion allocated in 2004.

Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo has said around Rp 20 trillion of the budget would be spent directly funding elementary, junior and high school education, along with Rp 6.2 trillion spent on school operational costs, and Rp 4.1 trillion for the maintenance of school buildings.

Educators and other critics have accused the government of defying a 2003 law that orders it to allot at least 20 percent of the state budget to education.

Despite the funding increase, recent surveys by two non-governmental organizations – the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Indonesian Street Children Organization (ISCO) – revealed the increased payments to schools had not led to decreased school fees.

"The schools' operational assistance funding does not often cover all their operational costs," the ICW's Ade Irawan said. "Sometimes parents still have to pay operational fees that should have been paid by the state."

The funds for operational assistance are meant to pay the salaries of teachers, buy school teaching materials and pay schools' telephone and electricity bills.

Ramida Siringoringo from the ISCO said many schools required parents to pay so-called "development money", but failed to disclose what the money was being used for.

"We have found that several schools ordering parents to pay development fees cannot explain where the money goes," she said. "These development fees could reach Rp 800,000 (per student) a year."

Natalius Telaumbanua from the Care Education Forum said some schools used the operational assistance money to finance non-core activities. "For example, we have found that one school used the fund to cover the travel costs of its headmaster, while the school had actually received a particular allocation for this purpose," he said.

Ade urged the government to take measures to stop schools from misusing their money. "Some schools allow their headmasters to manage the school budgets, which could lead to the misuse of such funds. "In these cases, the teachers and parents should monitor the schools' operational expenses."