Activists say inefficient budget expenditure and poor implementation of national exams were the main problems facing the country's national education during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's previous administration.
Lody Paat, coordinator of the Education Coalition, urged National Education Ministry on Tuesday to improve budget expenditures, saying that the ministry should stop using it's allocated budget in trying to improve the ministry's image through advertisements on television.
"The ads mostly tell people about free education and facilities for the poor, but in reality, people hardly see any implementation *of policies*," he said.
Lody suspected the advertising expenditure might have even reached into the billions of rupiah; money which could have been used to repair schools in many regions across the country and in providing scholarships for bright students.
"We still see many children on the street. Many of them have said that they do not go to school because their parents do not have money to finance their schooling," he said.
The government has allocated 20 percent of the national budget, which accounts for Rp 1,037 trillion (US$109 billion), for education this year.
Experts and activists have questioned the past expenditure, while national education programs remain unpopular, although many have acknowledged the government's efforts in increasing teachers' salaries.
Data from the National Commission for Child Protection showed that 12 million children and teenagers aged 7 to 18 years old did not have access to education in 2008.
The commission's secretary-general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, recently said teenagers aged between 12 and 14 years old occupied the largest portion of dropouts - 48 percent of the 12 million dropouts - followed by teenagers between the ages of 15 to 18 years old who accounted for 29 percent, and children between the ages of 7 and 11 years old who accounted for 23 percent.
A study recently conducted by the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) revealed that economic difficulties had led to widespread child labor in four Indonesian provinces: South Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and West Papua.
Another speaker at the conference, Bambang Wisudo, executive director of the Unlimited Schools (Sekolah Tanpa Batas), said the endorsement of the law on educational institutions did not benefit poorer people.
Critics have said that the law endorsement had triggered expensive education, as the government has stopped subsidizing state universities.
Another problem in education, Bambang said, was the poor implementation of annual national exams.
He argued exam implementation was not effective because the ministry did not provide exams according to individual school's standards.
"In many regions, schools have lower standards than those in large cities. However, they have to answer the same questions in the tests as those from schools in large cities," he said.
He suggested that the government provide different tests according to local standards. (nia)
