Education Working Committee Meeting, Commission X DPR UKT Value Should Be Free In Accordance With Constitutional Mandate

Member of Commission X DPR RI Djohar Arifin Husin in the RDPU Panja Education Financing Commission X of the DPR with a number of former education ministers at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, today. (Screenshot)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission X DPR RI Djohar Arifin Husin assessed that the cost of single tuition fees (UKT) in Indonesia should be free, as mandated by the constitution.

"If necessary, the students are free, in accordance with our constitution," said Djohar at the General Hearing Meeting of the Education Financing Working Committee (Panja) of Commission X of the DPR with a number of former education ministers at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Tuesday, July 2, was confiscated by Antara.

As contained in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia (NRI), it is stated that one of the goals of the state's presence is to educate the nation's life. Then, Article 31 paragraph (1) and (2) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia also mandates that every citizen is entitled to education and the government is obliged to pay for basic education and ensure the availability of an education budget of at least 20 percent of the APBN.

In line with this mandate, Djohar considered it inappropriate for the government and universities, especially state universities to charge students with UKT. According to him, state universities have a fundraising team tasked with seeking funds for education in higher education.

Funds raised, he continued, can be obtained through the development of business potential in the regions, such as mining businesses.

"There are so many things that can be taken from the region itself to get money. Don't take it from students," he said.

Previously, the same thing had been conveyed by Djohar at the Education Financing Committee meeting, Thursday, June 27. He expressed his hope that universities would own and run a business to ease the education costs of their students.

"I hope that all universities. So there are teams that take care of education, there are businesses that take care of them. So, tuition fees are not borne by students because this violates the constitution. It is not allowed," he said.

He gave an example, universities can run a palm oil or mining business. Even so, he also admitted that regulations were needed to strengthen the position of universities to run various businesses.

"We have land, palm oil, how come it is given to people. UNRI (Riau University) does not have one hectare of oil palm plantation, even though it is around oil palm. There is a coal mine, gold, nickel, how come state universities don't take this. We have to prepare regulations for this," he said.