Camelia Pasandaran – Desperate schools in Tangerang have resorted to borrowing money from students and teachers after the district government halted the distribution of operational aid funds in December.

"In my school, we borrow money from students [and their parents], ranging between Rp 2 million to 15 million ($230 to $1,700)," said Salman, a teacher at SDN 1 Parahu in Sukamulya.

"We have no option as we need the money to run the schools' activities, such as teaching aids, evaluations and competitions."

In other schools in the district, he said, activities other than regular classes have been halted in the absence of the school operational aid funds (BOS), which amount to Rp 387,000 per elementary student per year and Rp 500,000 per junior high school student per year.

Schools in Tangerang are not the only ones facing this problem. Out of the 492 districts throughout Indonesia, fewer than 100 have distributed their BOS funds since the start of the year.

The issue goes back to 2006, when the Home Affairs Ministry issued a regulation forbidding the granting of funds from one state institution to another.

But it did not cause a problem until the start of this year, when responsibility for disbursing the BOS funds was transferred from the National Education Ministry to the district governments.

Only 77 districts have so far distributed the funds – which are usually given out monthly – to schools, according to the Home Affairs Ministry. Data from the Education Ministry puts the number a bit higher at 90.

To resolve the issue, the two ministries have issued a joint letter instructing districts to distribute the funds.

But because the number of districts distributing the funds did not significantly increase after the letter was sent out, both ministries had to summon authorities from the local governments and education agencies in the delinquent provinces.

"We told them they had to finish distributing the BOS funds by next week since the money had been transferred to local governments in December," Reydonnyzar Moenek, a Home Affairs Ministry's spokesman, said on Sunday.

But Suyanto, the Ministry of Education's directorate general for higher education, said the real problem was that many schools had not presented proper budget plans, which are required before the funds can be disbursed.

"While we were expecting them to make simple, one-page plans, they made it complicated, giving us 100-page plans," Suyanto said, adding that he believed the problem was just temporary.

Furthermore, Suyanto said his ministry is now drafting a presidential decree to allow faster distribution of BOS by allowing district governments to disregard the 2006 ministerial regulation.