Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto revealed Friday that the government had allocated a record-breaking education budget, but the money was not going to the right people as some schools were still in poor condition with all its students even having to share one toilet.

May 2 marks the National Education Day. Indonesia is trying to improve its human capital, among others, by having a multibillion-dollar nutrient-rich meal program. The country’s curriculum also keeps on changing in hopes it will finally meet what the industry needs. But there are other things that Indonesia needs to pay attention to, namely the state of the school’s physical infrastructure and facilities.

In his National Education Day speech, Prabowo revealed that countless schools in the country were in bad shape despite the big education budget. For the 2025 fiscal year, Indonesia has set aside Rp 724.3 trillion ($44 billion) for the education sector. Southeast Asia’s largest economy had allocated Rp 665 trillion in education spending for 2024. Over the past decades, the government has earmarked about 20 percent of its annual budget for education as mandated by the constitution. Parts of the money also go to renovating schools.

“The current education budget is the highest-ever in Indonesian history, about 22 percent of our state budget. … Education will determine whether Indonesia will be a poor nation or grow into a country that can provide a better life for its people,” Prabowo said at an elementary school in Bogor.

“But let us ask ourselves, has all that money we spent [on education] over the years already gone to the right 'addresses'? Many schools are damaged even though we know that the money [for the renovations] is there. And how come there is only one toilet?"

Prabowo alluded that the money could have been lost to corruption as he urged his government officials to make sure that the designated budget must go into school renovations, as it should be. Indonesia is known to have been grappling with entrenched corruption. It scored 37 out of 100 points on the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index. A score of 0 indicates a highly corrupt country, while 100 means that it is very clean. 

The government plans to spend around Rp 16.9 trillion on school renovations for this year alone. Prabowo admitted that this was far from enough if Indonesia wanted to fix its school buildings. 

“Well, Rp 16-17 trillion is not enough. That’s only enough to renovate 11,000 schools. Indonesia has around 330,000 schools, if I remember correctly. … It would take 30 years for us to renovate all schools across the country,” Prabowo said.

Prabowo once again told his government to continue to cut spending on non-essential items, referring to the budget austerity measures that had already entered into force early this year. This way, the repair work can take place as soon as possible.

“I will always remind all my officials to do their best to serve the people. You are paid by the state, so please use the money meant for the people to serve them. Don’t embezzle the money using all sorts of excuses,” the retired army general said.

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