Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim announced on Thursday that the state would allocate Rp 7.2 trillion (US$ 532 million) in mobile phone credits and mobile data packages to support distance learning methods for the nation’s students and teachers, at a time when the pandemic has all but canceled face-to-face interactions across the country.

The state subsidy aims to cover the needs of the nation’s 60 million school students in the form of 35 gigabytes of internet data per student every month until the end of the year, while every teacher would get a monthly data allotment of 42 GB.

The ministry is verifying and updating its national student data until Sept. 11, which would give it a better idea of potential data package recipients.

Under the new scheme, which is financed by ministry funds reallocated from the delayed Mobilization Organization Program (POP), each university student and lecturer would also get 50 GB of mobile data per month.

While applauded by many, the creative solution still leaves some big holes in the implementation of distance education, as experts note that not every student in the country has a mobile phone or an internet connection.

Retno Listyarti, a commissioner for the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), said that while her office expressed appreciation for the ministry’s decision, she insisted that the plan followed a class bias.

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