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The Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) stated that the request from the President, Joko Widodo, regarding an endowment fund for education (DAP) will be discussed during the Indonesian Revised Budget (APBNP) 2017. Even though DAP has become a concern, Kemenkeu would not like to make cuts to the education budget as the President expected.
This was stated by Director General of Kemenkeu, Askolani, in Kemenkeu office, on Wednesday (5/4). The options considered such as the stipulation of the allocation fund or the utilization of the rest of education budget that had not been implemented by year end. He assured that the allocation of the existing education budget will be retained.
From the president’s viewpoint, currently the education budget is not fully used. Therefore, this should be partially allocated to DAP. By allocating perhaps 20% of the education budget from a few budget years, a long-term fund could be built up for use in the educational sector.
Meanwhile, The Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education (Menristekdikti), M Nasir, said that DAP has been in place in the form of a scholarship scheme of The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), which was taken from the total of the education budget. In 2018, the government plans to allocate around 10-15 trillion rupiah of the education budget for DAP.
Menkeu, Sri Mulyani, indicated that the LPDP fund is different from DAP which the government has requested. In the future, such allocated DAP will be combined with the LPDP fund starting in 2018. The current total of LPDP that has been collected is around 20 trillion rupiah.
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