Good News, Sri Mulyani Distributes IDR 2.3 Trillion Internet Quota Assistance For The Ministry Of Education And Culture

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani officially released a budget for internet quota assistance for students and educators within the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) worth Rp. 2.3 trillion.

In a virtual press conference with Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said that the amount of funds would be used for three months, from September to November 2021.

"This internet quota assistance will be given to more than 26 million people who are on the list of the Ministry of Education and Culture," he said, Wednesday, August 4.

In his explanation, the Minister of Finance detailed that the budget would be distributed into four categories of recipients. First, PAUD students with a quota of 7 gigabytes per month with an estimated 1.52 million people worth Rp88.35 billion.

Two, PAUD teachers and primary and secondary education teachers (dikdasmen) with 12 gigabytes per month to 1.56 million people worth Rp154.4 billion.

The third is elementary school students with a quota of 10 gigabytes per month to 20.52 million people amounting to Rp1.69 trillion.

And the last one is lecturers and students with a quota of 15 gigabytes per month to 3.27 million people worth Rp404.98 billion.

“Why do we give it from September when the learning activities have been going on since August? Because the Ministry of Finance needs to wait for the Ministry of Education to validate the data. This is because many students are advancing, for example from high school to university, and this takes time,” explained the Minister of Finance.

For information, internet quota assistance in the new academic year 2021/2022 is included in the National Economic Recovery (PEN) budget for the social protection sub-sector with a ceiling of IDR 187.84 trillion.

Meanwhile, the realization until July 16, 2021 is IDR 82.22 trillion or 43.8 percent of the allocated allocation.

Meanwhile, the PEN budget in this year's APBN has reached Rp. 744.75 trillion, with absorption up to last month of Rp. 277.36 trillion or 37.2 percent.