Study and Advocacy on Education Funding

Constitution mandates State officials to enhance the intellectual life of people by providing national education service. Various efforts have been tried, but the most important should be 9-year compulsory education program, known as Program Wajardikdas.

To ensure success implementation, since 2005, Education Ministry provides School Operation Aid (BOS) that is expected to help poor families continue sending their children to school, particularly at basic level. BOS is expected to be a breakthough in implementation of Wajardiknas program.

To monitor education budget allocation through BOS-KITA (BOS- Knowledge Improvement on Transparency and Accountability) program at school level, BIGS conducts a research that detects opportunities of abuse of BOS fund management.

BIGS collects and observes data and information via indepth interviews and focused group discussions (FGD). Various people and organizations who are involved –directly and indirectly- in BOS KITA fund management are involved in the problem observation phase of this research.

This research turns out to confirm results of previous researches on BOS Fund, that is, there are patterns of abuse of BOS fund management. Based on this finding, BIGS develops recommendations to relevant parties of BOS fund management. Following this phase is a workshop attended by strategic stakeholders of education sector, which range from government, activists to society representatives. Workshop is then followed by a full-day seminar on “Education Challenge in New-established Region”, attended by Bambang S (Chief of Bappeda of West Bandung Regency), Saeful Akbar (Mayor of Banjar) and Asep Warlan Wahyu (teaching staff of Law Faculty of Parahyangan University) as the speakers.