Vice President Ensures That The Distribution Of Papua Special Autonomy Scholarships Is Handled

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin ensured that scholarships for Papuan students funded from the special autonomy budget (Papuan special autonomy scholarships) which had stalled, would be handled after the student data was verified.

"Regarding the scholarship problem, there has actually been a suggestion that the scholarships that must be given are proposed (total) IDR 122 billion. However, later the government carried out a kind of data verification on the matter and it was verified. Everything has been completed," said the Vice President on the sidelines of his activities in Sorong, Southwest Papua, reported by ANTARA, Monday, July 17.

The vice president received information that Rp68 billion of scholarship funds was ready to be distributed, while the rest were still being verified.

He said the data on special autonomy scholarship recipients must be accurate so that they are right on target. He emphasized that the distribution of scholarships is not not unhandled, but must go through a verification process so that it is not wrong.

"Because there are things that have to be right, where, where is it, it's clear. Where does the lecture go, it has to be clear," he said.

The vice president appealed to students who are demanding education to stay afloat because the government will immediately complete the distribution of the scholarships.

"We hope they stay there. Later it will be resolved by the government," he said.

As previously reported, thousands of Papuan students who received special autonomy scholarships were unable to pay tuition fees and were threatened with being dismissed by the campus because of delays in paying tuition fees by the Papua Provincial Government.

Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian said the issue of the special autonomy scholarship fund was a matter of data collection.