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Teachers’ groups oppose using operational assistance fund to provide free lunches
Teachers' associations have raised various objections as well as a handful of potential solutions after a senior minister suggested last week to use the school operational assistance (BOS) fund to finance Prabowo's signature free school lunch program.
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Students play on Nov. 2, 2023 at SD Kalicari 3 state elementary school in Semarang, Central Java. (Antara/Makna Zaezar)
Several teachers’ associations have put up stiff opposition to an idea to finance free school lunches by using the school operational assistance (BOS) fund, which they said was barely enough to support day-to-day operational costs and to improve teachers’ welfare.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto made the suggestion to use the fund last week, during an inspection visit to a junior high school in Tangerang, Banten, which was running a free lunch pilot initiated and funded by the Tangerang regency administration.
Tangerang pilot project aims to identify any potential issues if the free lunch program is introduced at public schools nationwide to realize the key campaign promise of Prabowo Subianto, the presumptive winner of the presidential election.
Airlangga did not indicate how using the BOS fund to finance the free lunch program would work, including how much of the fund should be set aside.
But teachers’ associations said that using the BOS fund to fund the free lunch program would be a misplaced priority and could lead to problems elsewhere.
The BOS fund, an annual budget sourced via regional allocations from the state budget, is intended as financial assistance to support schools’ operating costs, including contract teachers’ salaries and building maintenance.
“We certainly hope that the nutritional needs of Indonesian children are cared for. But the teachers need to be looked after, too,” Imam Zanatul Haeri of the Education and Teachers Association (P2G) said in a statement on Saturday.
