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Opportunities for education amid budget tightening
We see hope in partnerships beyond the state, emphasizing collaboration with community-based organizations, industries and international entities to avert disaster and sustain education.
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Elementary school students participate in a coloring contest at a literacy festival and book fair held in Padalarang, West Java, on Feb. 18, 2025. (Antara/Abdan Syakura)
T
riggered by an economic downturn, President Prabowo Subianto’s Presidential Instruction No. 1/2025 slashed budgets to fund priorities like free nutritious meals and food security.
Despite adjustments to ensure that the core of the scholarship and operational aid budget remain intact, these cuts are predicted to still have the unintended consequence of reducing the ability of these two ministries’ public service capabilities. Concerns have arisen about how Indonesia can take advantage of the demographic bonus in 2045, when the country will have a significant number of productive-age people.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry’s budget fell from Rp 33.55 trillion (US$1.979 billion) to Rp 26.27 trillion, a Rp 7.27 trillion cut, and the Higher Education, Science, and Technology Ministry’s dropped from Rp 57.6 trillion to Rp 43.3 trillion, a Rp 14.3 trillion cut.
These reductions imperil programs like the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP) for 18.59 million students, KIP-K scholarships for 985,577 underprivileged college students and the BOPTN operational aid for public universities.
The cuts threaten catastrophic impacts: disrupted access to education, plummeting human resource quality, widening inequality and diminished global competitiveness.
If PIP falters, children from poor families may drop out, shrinking the educated workforce by 2045, when 70 percent of Indonesia’s population will be of productive age a missed demographic bonus.
Vocational training, teacher quality, literacy and research face setbacks, risking a generation unprepared for a tech-driven economy and lagging behind nations like Singapore. Inequality could deepen, with marginalized regions and poor communities hit hardest.
