Jakarta. Indonesia still has enough fiscal space to make the first nine years of education free at both public and private schools, according to an analyst.

A recent landmark Constitutional Court ruling states that the government must fund both public and private elementary and middle schools. This ruling paves the way for free basic education for all in populous Indonesia. Eko Listiyanto, a senior economist at the think-tank Indef, said that there was still enough state budget for this ambitious policy despite other money-consuming programs like the colossal school-feeding initiative. 

"We still have fiscal room to implement the court ruling. Of course, the government might have to reallocate some spending to do that," Eko said.

"But I believe that the implementation [of making schools free] takes place in phases. So the government has space to redo the budget planning," Eko said.

He noted how the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) had often found inefficiencies in education spending over the past years, thus highlighting the need for a thorough budget reformulation.

Indonesia is planning to set aside Rp 727 trillion ($44.6 billion) in the 2026 education budget, marking an increase from the Rp 724.3 trillion allocated this year.

Amid the court ruling, the Prabowo Subianto administration is spending huge chunks of money on a massive school-feeding program aimed at improving children's nutritional intake.

The government reported to have spent Rp 3 trillion as of May 21. These meals had already made their way to around 3.9 million people across the archipelago. For this year alone, the government has set aside Rp 71 trillion of state money to cook the daily meals, meaning that they have not used up a large portion of the budget. However, there are plans to raise the budget to a total of Rp 171 trillion in hopes of feeding 82.9 million individuals, including expectant mothers, daily nutritious meals by the end of the year.

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