IPNU to remind govt of organizing fund allocation on education exactly

Jakarta, NU Online
Nahdlatul Ulama Students Association (IPNU) welcomed the decision of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to raise educational budget that would reach 20 percent of the total state budget for 2009. Though the decision has come a bit late, it would be such a "fresh wind" in improving educational quality in Indonesia.

General Chairman of the IPNU Idy Muzayyad said the proposed education budget should always be monitored to avoid any unexpected misuse.<>

"The budget allocation for education has not so far been in line with the improvement of education quality if it is not followed by organizing the (fund) allocation exactly," Idy Muzayyad told NU Online here on Friday (15/8). 

The government Thursday finally stated that it will raise its budget allocation for education next year following the legal pressure from the Constitutional Court.

"The President has instructed a 20 percent budget allocation for next year regardless of budgetary constraints," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani told a media briefing at the Presidential Palace.

In a judicial review on the 2008 State Budget Law, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday stated that the law had violated the 1945 Constitution by failing to allocate a minimum of 20 percent of annual spending on education.

The law currently only allocates 15.6 percent. The court allowed the government to continue using the 2008 law in managing the country's fiscal affairs but demanded the budget on education to be raised next year.

To comply with the demand, Mulyani said the government would have to take other efficiency measures and cut other types of spending.

While President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday pledged an average salary increase of 15 percent for civil servants and retirees next year, making Rp 2 million the lowest monthly salary for teachers.

The move is in line with the government's recent effort to improve public services, which will take the form, among other things, of a 16.4 percent budget increase allotted for state employee salaries.

"Government officials and retirees' income will increase through a 15 percent raise in basic salary and retirement fund," Yudhoyono said.(rif)