Sri Mulyani: Big Budget on Education but Lacking in Quality
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Kamis, 1 Januari 1970 07:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated that the challenge in Indonesia`s academic world is no longer about the amount of budget but more about how the quality of education can produce better human resources.
“The challenge we face now is not about how we spend the Rp444 trillion education budget this year, but more on how to create people with a certain degree of quality,” said Sri Mulyani in Padang, West Sumatra on Thursday, February 8.
Sri Mulyani mentioned this during her public lecture at Andalas University entitled “Maintaining the momentum to achieve prosperity.”
Read: Jusuf Kalla Agrees for Foreign Universities Entering Indonesia
The former Managing Director of the World Bank Group argued that the quality of education in Indonesia is still considerably behind neighboring countries. This is shown by the average school duration in the country that is less than eight years, meaning that they stop at Junior High from the expected 12 years.
“Compared to Vietnam that equally spends 20 percent of their budget but their quality of education is maintained to be above Indonesia,” said Sri Mulyani. She considers human resources as the most valuable asset a country must have.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla previously questioned the effectiveness of an ever-increasing education budget but does not seem to translate into the country’s improved education quality.
ANTARA
