State Must Free Education, Government Prepares Implementation Scheme

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Pratikno stated that the government is preparing a follow-up to the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) which decides that the state must make primary to secondary education free.

"Now each ministry is preparing its follow-up regarding access to education. The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education has gone quite far," Pratikno said as quoted on Monday, June 16.

He explained that the technical team at the relevant ministries, especially the Ministry of Elementary and Secondary Education (Kemendikdasmen) and the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag), had begun to draw up steps to implement the decision.

"I will check what progress it looks like, but the technical team has started working," he said.

According to Pratikno, the government will soon hold a ministerial-level coordination meeting as a follow-up to the decision.

"In a short time, we will immediately coordinate for a ministerial meeting," he said.

Previously, the Constitutional Court decided that the state, in this case the central and regional governments, must make basic education free, which is held in elementary, junior high, and madrasa or equivalent education units, both in public and private schools.

The Constitutional Court stated that the phrase "mandatory to study at the basic level of education without charge" in Article 34 paragraph (2) of Law Number 20 of 2003 concerning the National Education System (Sisdiknas) has caused multiple interpretations and discriminatory treatment, thus contradicting the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

Based on this consideration, the Constitutional Court in its ruling changed the norms of the phrase Article 34 paragraph (2) of the National Education System Law to:

"The government and local governments guarantee that they are required to study at least at the basic level without collecting fees, both for basic education units organized by the government and basic education units organized by the community".