Ridwan Max Sijabat and Kornelius Purba, Jakarta – The huge portion of the state budget allocated to education has been instrumental in greatly improving the welfare of teachers, but local administrations often use the funds as a political and economic bargaining chip, a senior government official said Tuesday.
Such practices seriously hinder the government's drive to get all children to undergo nine years of education because parents were often forced to pay for their children's education although the Constitution obliges the government to allocate at least 20 percent of the budget on education.
The central government allocates a school operational assistance (BOS) fund to all schools across the country. However, regents, mayors and the local councils often intentionally delay the disbursement of the funds to schools on trumped-up reasons, despite being aware that the learning process in schools would be severely hampered, the official said.
Speaking in an interview with The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, Deputy National Education Minister Fasli Jalal said local politicians and officials often used the large funds from the state budget to consolidate their political power.
"Regional leaders delay disbursing the funds and hold on to the money by reporting it as locally generated revenue [PAD] for the next fiscal year. Unfortunately the funds are then spent on non-education goals," Fasli said.
To minimize this practice, the disbursement of the BOS will no longer require the authorization of regional legislatures and will be automatically sent to schools.
Fasli warned there was a possibility that the government would centralize the BOS policy if local administrations were not able to fully implement the program.
He said many schools were forced to impose illegal levies on students, such as admission and registration fees, mainly because they did not receive BOS funds on time.
Municipal and regency administrations are often at odds with local legislative councils when deliberating annual budget allocations and the disputes can lead to delayed disbursements.
Administrations and local councils also often delay the BOS disbursement until schools hand over their budget reports for the previous academic year.
The central government began allocating BOS funds in 2005 following regional autonomy. This year, it has allocated almost Rp 20 trillion to BOS funds for 258,000 state and private elementary and junior high schools with a total of 43 million students.
The BOS funds are aimed at ensuring the success of the government's compulsory nine-year education program, to increase access to education for the poor and to lower the incidence of students dropping out of school.
In compliance with the Constitution, the government this year allocated 20.25 percent of the Rp 1,229 trillion state budget, or almost Rp 249 trillion, for education, with Rp 158 trillion is transferred to regions under the General Allocation Funds (DAU).
Fasli warned that it was impossible for the government to provide a totally free education. Students and parents still had to pay for books, learning tools, accommodation and other expenses. "Most parents do not want their children to feel alienated and inferior in school because of economic problems," he said.
Fasli added that the government had managed to improve the social welfare of 3.4 million teaching staff by phasing in allowances.
"For now, teachers with 15 years or more of employment have been given priority to receive the allowance, which can be up to 70 percent of their monthly salaries," he said.
"Grade IIIC teachers receive a monthly salary of around Rp 3 million and will receive an additional Rp 2 million pay in allowances. A teacher with a monthly salary of Rp 5 million will be able to support their family and have no reasons to moonlight," Fasli said.