Jakarta – The government will introduce a 12-year compulsory basic education program for all children next year, an official says.

"The Education Minister [Muhammad Nuh] has proposed the pilot projects," the National Education Ministry's director general for secondary education, Hamid Muhammad, said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com on Monday. Currently, compulsory basic education is nine years.

Hamid said that the ministry planned to increase the capacity of high schools in the country. The government and the House of Representatives had agreed to add 8,000 seats, he added.

The government would also raise the number of scholarship recipients for junior high school graduates and prepare school aid funds for 6.7 million senior high school students, Hamid said "We propose to give Rp 200,000 [US$22.40] each annually." The funds will be disbursed next year, he said.