Surabaya – The East Java provincial government has decided to provide free healthcare to clerics who run Islamic boarding schools across the province, Deputy Governor Saifullah Yusuf said Saturday.
Quoted by Antara state news agency, he said the initiative would help prevent clerics from suffering serious illnesses.
"Most Muslim clerics who sought medical treatment at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital were already in a severe condition," Saifullah said. This often led to the worsening health condition of the cleric, Saifullah added.
He publicly unveiled the plan for free medical care for clerics after accompanying East Java Governor Soekarwo in a meeting with influential cleric KH Mas Subadar at the Roudlotul Ulum Islamic boarding school in Pasuruan regency.
Soekarwo's entourage also included former East Java governor Imam Utomo. Saifullah said the government's medical team, including specialists, would visit the clerics or their Islamic boarding schools every three months for a health checkup.
The move will be part of preventive measures to keep local Muslim clerics healthy, he added. Due to their deep-rooted influence in society, Muslim clerics have always been figures that politicians must visit ahead of national or regional elections.
Governor Soekarwo was quoted by Antara as saying the funds for the free health care program would be allocated from the East Java provincial budget.
Last October, Soekarwo also said his administration would provide operational funds for Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and Islamic school students.
The Rp 185 billion fund will be allocated from the provincial budget, together with the fund for improving and developing teachers' skills, he added. The governor said the program would be fully implemented next year.
He said the student program would include more than 760,000 pesantren students and nearly 150,000 from Islamic junior high schools.
The operational fund will also be provided to more than 750,000 pupils (santri) of elementary school level and more than 100,000 junior high school students.
Under the program each student, the government said, would receive between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 per month. Saifullah also said the provincial administration planned to issue a bylaw on a one-roof education ma nagement system that would unite formal and informal pesantren education under the authority of one administrative agency.
Currently, formal education comes under the authority of the education agency, while pesantren or other religious education is under the religious affairs agency.
According to Soekarwo, the new program is intended to improve the teaching skills of teachers at pesantren to ensure they have the same level of skills as teachers at formal education institutions.