Jakarta, NU Online
The Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has greatly appreciated the government plan to expand access to education. <>

Deputy secretary general of the Indonesia Muslim Artists and Culturalists Association (Lesbumi) of NU, M. Dienaldo, made the remarks following the government plan to provide the additional allocation for education contained in the proposed 2014 budget.

M. Dienalso said that the government must have a long-standing commitment to advancing education, especially in dealing with the foundational skills necessary for at-risk middle school students.

As reported by the Jakarta Post, in his state of the nation address at the House of Representatives last week, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government planned to spend Rp 82.7 trillion (US$7.6 billion) — a 7.5 percent increase from this year’s budget — on education next year.

Ministry spokesman Ibnu Hamad said recently that the government aimed to increase the percentage of high-school-aged children in school to 97 percent by 2020, under the Universal Secondary Education program, a 12-year compulsory enrollment program that was launched by the ministry in June.

Ibnu said that to help reach the target, a portion of the extra budget allocation would be used to augment the school operational assistance (BOS) program for high school students.

With the proposed extra budget allocation for next year, he estimated the BOS program could disperse stipends of Rp 1 million (US$100) to a greater number of high school students.

He added that the additional allocation would also be used to build more schools and classrooms, as well as to renovate existing facilities. “We would also use the budget to improve the quality of teachers by providing more trainings for them,” Ibnu said.

He added that the budget would also be used to support the implementation of the new curriculum, which was being rolled out in stages starting in July this year. “More schools will implement the new curriculum next year, which means more funds are required to support the implementation,” he said.

“However, we haven’t deliberated on the exact amounts to be allocated for each program. That will be discussed with the House of Representatives in September,” he said.

Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh said on Saturday that since the proposed budget had not yet been approved by the House, the amount could change. “[The amount] is just a projection, and could be different in the actual 2014 state budget,” Nuh said.

Mohammad Abduhzen, an education expert from Paramadina University, said that the ministry should focus additional spending solely on expanding access to education, not on the new curriculum. “It’s such a shame that the government intends to spend the extra allocation on the new curriculum, which has not been proven to improve the quality of education in the country,” he said.

He said that instead of using the money to implement an unproven curriculum, the ministry should focus on guaranteeing that all children could attend elementary school. “There are so many questionable, unnecessary initiatives. For instance, the government scrapped initial student enrollment fees this year in an attempt to lessen the high costs of higher education.

“According to many parents, however, the policy caused total university fees to go up, as many universities decided to respond by increasing their semester fees,” he said.

“Given the unfairness still present in the nation’s education system, the new curriculum should not be one of the ministry’s priorities,” he said.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq