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Revisiting decentralization of basic education
The education budget has reached about Rp 200 trillion (US$22 billion) annually, but the MDG target for education, where all children should receive a basic education, has not yet been reached
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he education budget has reached about Rp 200 trillion (US$22 billion) annually, but the MDG target for education, where all children should receive a basic education, has not yet been reached. Access to basic education becomes problematic.
A mandatory nine years education targets 95 percent of kids to be schooled. This has been achieved, but disparity in regencies and cities needs to be resolved as about 70 local governments could not achieve that level.
Some even only achieved a 70 percent rate, meaning that in those regions, 30 percent of kids are not in schools. The next problems are quality of education and its disparity as indicated by a national exam score.
Decentralized management of basic education was reinforced by a 2007 government regulation. Currently, primary and junior secondary schools including its teachers belong to local governments.
At the same time, the achievement of national education targets is the responsibility of the National Education Ministry.
In fact, the ministry provides block grants to the communities to build new classrooms across Indonesia. Rarely local governments do this as it will cost them a lot.
Maintenance of existing schools is another local responsibility but due to budget constraints local governments did little in carrying out their obligation.
Currently, renovation for damaged schools is funded by the Education Sector Special Allocation Fund (DAK Pendidikan) from the central government.
The teacher salary has been transferred into the local government’s payroll. The operational cost of primary and junior secondary schools are funded by BOS (school operational assistance) at a fixed rate per student.
It is aiming at reducing cost barriers for low-income families to send their children to school. BOS Buku was even introduced a couple of years ago to tackle the low national examination results in some largely low-income provinces.
These facts show that the local government failed to execute its authority and responsibility due to a couple of reasons.
First, local budgets (APBD) heavily depend on the transfer of funds from the central government. In some low-income regencies or cities, revenue from the central government made 98 percent of its APBD.
They only have 2 percent liberty to develop activities for tackling their local problems for all
sectors as most central funds are earmarked.
Second, most APBDs indicated an average of 28.3 percent for the education sector. A high percentage of the education budget is unfortunately spent on salary. On average, only 5 percent is left for school improvement.
A World Bank study in 2007, the Public Expenditure Review, mentioned the national average teacher student ratio. An average 20:1 ratio was found as it is a relatively inefficient ratio.
Indonesia’s ideal standard student number per classroom is 28. The average ratio means that we could add eight more students without adding another teacher. If that’s the case, why do schools at some places still lacking sufficient amounts of teachers?
The key is in the distribution of teachers. That study revealed that 55 percent of schools now have too many teachers, while 34 percent need additional teachers, 66 percent of them are in remote areas.
Decentralization for the last 10 years has shown us these facts. It created inefficiency and confusion among central and local governments.
Responsibility of national education lies with the National Education Ministry, but the authority is in the hands of local governments.
Decentralization of basic education needs to be revisited due to inefficient allocation of resources. The centralized teacher’s distribution will create more room for efficiency. Moving teachers from one surplus place to the deficit one cannot be undertaken.
As the education budget is relatively sufficient now, indicated by its ratio to GDP, an efficient allocation becomes more important. Decentralization of basic education must be revisited.
The writer is a lecturer at Perbanas Graduate School of Business.
