Deputy Head of Commission X DPR Asks for All Elementary Schools in the Country to be Free!

Photo by Bayu Syaits on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Deputy Chair of Commission X of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) MY Esti Wijayati is pushing for basic education in the country to be made free. This is in light of the state's obligation to provide educational services to the nation's children.

"Free education is the state's obligation to its citizens. This is a constitutional mandate, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia," said MY Esti Wijayati, Saturday, November 9.

The state's obligation to provide free education to its people is stated in Article 31 of the 1945 Constitution, especially in Paragraph (2) which reads: the government is obliged to endeavor and organize a national education system. Esti also reminded about this in the DPR Commission X Working Meeting with the Minister of Elementary and Secondary Education (Mendikdasmen), Abdul Mu'ti, a few days ago.

"This is our obedience to the constitution. Let's provide free education to the people. If they are unable to reach junior high school as a whole, elementary school should be free, regardless of whether it is public or private," she said.

Esti understands that there are still private schools that cannot truly provide free education even though they receive budget assistance from the government. This is because there are elite schools that have above-standard services that require more costs.

"We will study further, which private schools do not want to be given the entire budget from the Government but are not allowed to charge. Maybe there are levels like in DKI Jakarta which has grades, right, grades D and E do not want to be free because they are considered favorite schools," explained Esti.

Esti asked the Government to make a general policy to make basic education free throughout the country.

"So we support Mr. Prabowo as president to make a policy that is in accordance with the constitution. There is an obligation for the Government to provide education with free financing for all our children," she said.

"I hope this will be our breakthrough, a policy so that elementary schools are free, no fees are charged at all, both state and private," continued Esti.

Esti welcomed the DKI Jakarta plan to initiate a free school program starting the new school year of 2025, in this case including private schools that usually pay.

"The free school plan policy in Jakarta is a step that deserves to be appreciated. We encourage other regions to be able to make the same efforts, because this is an implementation of the mandate of the state constitution," she said.

As is known, the DKI Jakarta DPRD and the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government have agreed on the draft General Budget Policy and Temporary Budget Priority Ceiling (KUA-PPAS) for the 2025 Fiscal Year APBD of IDR 91.1 trillion. One of the priority programs agreed upon is free schools starting in July 2025 for elementary, junior high, and senior high/vocational high schools in private schools.

This free school will later apply to the cost of the Education Development Contribution (SPP), initial fees, and even registration fees. However, this fee exemption does not apply to all schools.

Only private schools with cluster 1 to 3 status (grade A, B, C) will be the target of the free school program in Jakarta. Meanwhile, private schools in clusters 4 and 5 (grade D and E) will not be targeted because their quality is already elite.

According to Esti, free school fees are capital to build Indonesia's human resources (HR), especially for basic education. Because elementary school is the foundation of children's education.

"If we want to ensure that children do not drop out of school, all our children go to school at least until elementary school, let's fix it from the foundation of education by providing free schools at the elementary education level," said Esti.

The Head of the Commission in the DPR in charge of education affairs added that free schools at the elementary education level will support President Prabowo's vision and mission who wants to build the country from the village. Esti assessed that this must start from development in the field of education.

Esti also said that the DPR RI is also ready to provide support through the budgeting function to ensure that Indonesian children receive a decent education.

"The DPR has also been trying to fulfill the constitutional mandate by setting the education budget at 20% in the APBN," she explained.

Esti also asked for strict supervision and to take firm action if there are state schools that collect levies under the guise of donations. Because this was once a finding of the Indonesian Ombudsman. Donations at schools themselves are indeed permitted, but with the note that they are voluntary and not binding.

"Also, how the School Committee, which functions to supervise education, really plays its role well so as not to 'approve' the practice of levies disguised as donations in schools," concluded Esti.