Government to provide functional allowance to 2.1 mln teachers

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government plans to provide around 2.1 million teachers of state and private elementary schools, junior and senior high schools with functional allowance.

"The Education Ministry will allocate Rp2.4 trillion in the 2007 state budget to give functional allowance to some 2.1 million teachers," said Fasli Jalal, the national education ministry`s director general for improvement of the education quality, here on Saturday.

He expressed his optimism that the House of Representatives (DPR) would approve the proposal on the allowance provision, which was aimed at improving the welfare of the country`s teachers and the national education quality.

The proposal was in line with the country`s Law No. 14/2005, he said.

Each teacher was expected to receive allowance amounting to Rp200, 000 (less than US$20) per month.

The director general said that ideally the proposed amount was not enough, but due to the restricted financial capability of the government, the government could not provide more than that.

He said that the government planned to increase the functional allowence value for teaches in stages in the coming years. (*)