Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday highlighted that the largest allocation in Indonesia's 2025 State Budget is for the education sector, not defense, like in other countries such as the United States and India."Many countries have allocated their largest budget for defense. Meanwhile, Indonesia's largest allocation is for the education sector," he said at the handover of the 2025 Budget Implementation Checklist and State Budget Regional Transfer on Tuesday.
This decision was taken because Prabowo believes that education and health services are the way out of poverty.
He is of the view that social protection, such as social assistance and subsidies for the community, only pertains to strategies or intermediary steps toward economic revival.
"In the end, education and health will bring our people out of poverty," he emphasized.
He said that the budget allocation for education in the 2025 State Budget structure is the largest in history.
Baca juga: Farming instructors to support food sufficiency push: govt
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that government spending in the 2025 State Budget is set at Rp2,701.4 trillion (US$165 billion), with Rp724.3 trillion (US$44 billion) allocated for the education sector.
"This is the highest spending on the education function in our State Budget," the minister observed.
Thus, the President has increased the education budget for 2025 by 8.9 percent from Rp665.02 trillion (US$40 billion) in 2024.
Baca juga: Govt to equip schools with advanced TVs for remote education: Prabowo
Earlier, head of the Presidential Communications Office, Hasan Nasbi, said that Prabowo has also increased the budget for teacher welfare allowances by Rp16.7 trillion (US$1 billion) to Rp81 trillion (US$4,9 trillion) for 2025.
It will be gradually distributed to all teachers in Indonesia, whose number is currently pegged at 2.9 million, he added.
The details of the education budget in 2025 are contained in Attachment IV of Presidential Regulation Number 201 of 2024 concerning Details of the 2025 State Budget, which was stipulated by the President on November 30, 2024.
The presidential regulation contains details of the state revenue budget, state spending budget, and budget financing.