GOVERNMENT MUST  SUPPORT THE PRIVATE SCHOOL
 the jakarta post

The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that a clause in the National Educational System Law that states the government “can”, but is not obliged to, give financial support to private educational institutions is against the Constitution.

The court granted a petition filed by two religious-based schools in Central Java — Islamic Salafiyah and Catholic Santa Maria foundation — to annul Article 55 of the law, which says “society-based education institutions can receive technical support, financial subsidy and other resources fairly from the central government and/or the local administration”.

Both foundations argued that the word “can” in the article might allow the government to dodge its educational responsibilities.

The court said the word “can” was incompatible with the 1945 Constitution, which stipulates that the government must guarantee primary education for all citizens.

However, the court stated that the word “can” in Article 55 of the Law No. 20/2003 was constitutional if applied to higher education, as this was the responsibility of citizens.

Machmud Masjkur of the Salafiyah foundation told The Jakarta Post that he welcomed the ruling because it guaranteed equality among primary education institutions.

“This means that there will be no more discrimination against community-based institutions that provide primary education,” he said.

He further said that he would discuss the ruling with his colleagues to consider whether or not they would continue to request the government’s support for secondary private education institutions.

Hermawi Taslim, one of the lawyers advocating for the Islamic Salafiyah and Catholic Santa Maria foundations told the Post that the ruling marked the end of government discrimination against private primary education institutions in the country.

“The government will no longer have reason to refuse to support private primary institutions as it has been doing,” he said.

He added that the ruling would also oblige the National Education Agency to treat private primary education institutions as partners.

Nikmal Fata, a teacher at Bandung’s community-based primary school Babus Salam, told the Post that the court’s ruling would be a great help for private primary education institutions even though it might not change anything for the private secondary schools.