JAKARTA: (Bernama) Indonesia is accelerating the implementation of free education at about 164,000 public schools nationwide, from early childhood through senior secondary level, while finalising a separate plan to eliminate tuition fees at public universities.
Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said President Prabowo Subianto gave the directive during a Cabinet meeting on education as part of efforts to widen access to education.
"The implementation of free education at state schools covers early childhood education and kindergarten, primary, junior secondary, senior secondary and vocational schools,” he said in a statement.
Teddy said the government would also spend the next two to four weeks finalising plans for tuition-free public universities, including eliminating regular tuition fees and entrance fees.
Meanwhile, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Brian Yuliarto said several options were being considered for the university plan, including how the government would replace tuition fees under independent admission channels and other revenue currently used to finance university operations.
"The President wants the programme to make tuition free to be implemented as soon as possible. However, of course, we will go through stages, not immediately,” he told a press conference after the meeting.
He said a special team led by Coordinating Human Development and Cultural Affairs Minister Pratikno would further assess the costs and implementation stages over the next two weeks to one month.
For the public-school component, Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara said no additional allocation would be created, with funding for the free education programme to come from within the Rp820.9 trillion (Rp1 million=RM229.10) education allocation in the proposed 2027 state budget.
"The state budget always allocates 20 per cent for education. Therefore, the question is how to properly design the utilisation of this budget, which exceeds Rp800 trillion,” he said at the same press conference. - Bernama
