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President Prabowo touts biggest spending on education in state budget
In his speech at the Presidential Palace to unveil details of the 2025 state budget Prabowo said that unlike other countries such as India and the United States, Indonesia spent more on education than on its defense budget.
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President Prabowo Subianto looks on during a meeting with United States President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 12, 2024. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
P
resident Prabowo Subianto said on Tuesday that large spending on education would be the hallmark of his administration, even eclipsing the amount for defense, saying that good quality education would help the country deal with the poverty problem.
In his speech at the Presidential Palace to unveil details of the 2025 state budget Prabowo said that unlike other countries such as India and the United States, Indonesia spent more on education than on its defense budget.
"There's a lot of countries whose biggest allocation in the state budget is for defense spending, countries like the United States or India. In Indonesia the biggest allocation is for education," Prabowo was quoted by Antara newswire as saying.
A presidential regulation on the 2025 state budget states that for the current fiscal year, the government has raised the spending on education to Rp 724.3 trillion from Rp 665.02 trillion in 2024, an increase of 8.9 percent.
In his speech, Prabowo claimed that the allocation was the biggest in the country's history.
"If you pay close attention, the biggest allocation is for education. And if I am not mistaken this is the biggest allocation in the country's history," Prabowo said.
In the latter part of his speech, Prabowo also said that the 2025 state budget was drawn up after considering increased geopolitical tensions in the world.
"Even in countries that we can consider developed, we currently see a military emergency and other tensions. So we have to prepare ourselves to face a situation that is worse than what we have today," the President said.
