Sri Mulyani: Education Must Continue Even Though The Country Is Having Difficulty Due To The Pandemic

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati emphasized that education remains a priority for the government even though the State Budget (APBN) is under pressure due to the impact of COVID-19.

"Education, extraordinary activities are important, so even though faced with the challenges and threats of COVID-19, the teaching and learning process should still be implemented," he said in an online discussion quoted from Antara, Monday, November 23.

Sri Mulyani said the government's encouragement for the education sector in the midst of the pandemic was reflected in various budget allocations such as IDR 2.94 trillion for the salaries of honorary teachers at the Ministry of Education and Culture and IDR 2.08 trillion at the Ministry of Religion.

Then Rp. 2.61 trillion for pesantren so that teaching and learning activities can still be carried out even though using health protocols, Rp. 5.5 trillion for internet subsidies for students and university students, and Rp.1.16 trillion for internet assistance for teachers at the Ministry of Religion.

He detailed that internet assistance was given as much as 20 GB per month for early childhood education, 35 GB per month for SD to SMA, 42 GB per month for 6 million students, and 50 GB per month for 3.8 million lecturers and teachers.

"All these funds use a budget of more than Rp.6.66 trillion just for the internet," he said.

Furthermore, the government also provides a wage subsidy for 1.6 million non-civil servant educators within the Ministry of Education and Culture and 800 thousand for the Ministry of Religion of IDR 600 thousand for three months with a total budget of IDR 3.66 trillion.

Not only that, the government continues to issue budgets for various rehabilitation activities such as SD and SMP for 528 schools, 226 madrasas and religious schools, as well as the construction of 24 dormitories and 25 Islamic boarding school learning rooms.

In addition, the government provides scholarships starting from the Smart Indonesia program to 15.95 million students ranging from elementary, junior high to high school students and for 736 thousand students who take part in the Bidik Misi scholarship or college Indonesian card.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Religion was given school operation assistance for 7.6 million students and Islamic boarding school operational assistance for 193 thousand institutions that had 14.2 million pesantren students.

"This is something of a partiality because indeed the education budget is the largest budget in state spending, namely 25 percent or more than Rp. 500 trillion," he said.