Jakarta – The National Commission for Human Rights called Wednesday for the government to provide free elementary education to the children of poor families.

"The policy currently applied is merely free school fees in public elementary schools. It has yet to open wider schooling opportunities due to other expenses, including admission fees, books, uniforms, as well as transportation," the commission's deputy chairman, Zumrotin K. Susilo, said Wednesday.

The commission stated in a recent report that most poor families are still burdened with 50 to 70 percent of their children's education, although since last year the government has provided a school operational assistance fund.

"The government and society need to realize that education is a long-term means for eradicating poverty," said Zumrotin. She said education programs could go hand in hand with other programs, such as capital facilitation to empower poor families.

"Capital facilitation is better than the government handing direct cash assistance," said Zumrotin. "However, the government still prefers instant means of poverty elimination rather than long-term solutions. The direct cash assistance is ineffective because of its instant nature."

Zumrotin also called on the government to simplify the formal requirements for such programs "so that poor people can really access them".

The number of poor families in Indonesia is estimated 18 million, or some 54 million people, with the assumption that every family consists of three people.

The rights commission reported that money went missing from school operational assistance funds in 30 of the country's 33 provinces.

Deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission X overseeing education issues, Heri Ahmadi, said this year the government had allocated Rp 52 trillion (US$5.7 billion) for national education, Rp 44 trillion for the Education Ministry and Rp 8 trillion for the Religious Affairs Ministry.

According to the House commission's evaluation, there Rp 4.6 trillion went missing from last year's total education budget.

Zumrotin said that Malaysia had managed to overcome poverty by making education a priority for the last 20 years.

"Indonesia, however, prefers economic to human development," she said. "The government needs to meet its target of allocating 20 percent of the state budget for education by 2008."

However, Heri said: "I don't believe the target can be fulfilled. This year, the government failed to meet the education budget of at least 16.7 percent from the state budget."