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Chief Justice Anwar Usman delivering a public lecture to students of the Muhammadiyah Institute of Law, Bima, Saturday (19/6/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Hendy.

Sunday, June 20, 2021 | 09:45 WIB

BIMA, Public Relations—Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Anwar Usman delivered a public lecture on “Rule of Law as Instrument to Just, Unified, and Advanced NKRI” to students of the Muhammadiyah Institute of Law (STIH), Bima at the Thayeb Auditorium on Saturday, June 19, 2021. He talked about the guarantee of the right to education in the 1945 Constitution pre- and post-amendment. He said that regulation on it remained minimal despite the state goal of developing the nation’s intellectual life is only possible through the development of the national education system.

However, he added, after the amendment, such regulation can be found in many articles of the Constitution, such as Article 22D paragraphs (2) and (3), Article 28C paragraph (1), Article 28E paragraph (1), as well as Article 31 paragraphs (1) through (5). In addition, post-amendment, compulsory education is mandatory. The government is now obligated to fund education. Education is now also imperative both for citizens and the government as education provider. A minimum of 20% education budget is now mandatory in the state (APBN) and regional (APBD) budgets.

Issues in Education

Justice Anwar then talked about the implementation of such guarantee to education. He said that normatively, the regulation on 20% education budget was already in place in 2002, but Law No. 20 of 2003 on the National Education System, especially the elucidation to Article 49, gave the government the discretion to implement it gradually. This was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in the Decision No. 011/PUU-III/2005.

In its legal considerations, the Court held that the 1945 Constitution had stipulated a minimum of 20% of the state and regional budgets for education, which should not be reduced by any regulations under it. After the decision was passed, the government set its education budgets to 20%, pursuant to Article 31 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution.

Justice Anwar also said that education was not just about budgets, but also coordination between state institutions to ensure the success of the management of education. Education is not under the purview of only the Education Ministry and the central government, but also other ministiries. He then urged everyone to form synergy and to work sustainably.

The chief justice also reminded everyone not only to focus on improving the nation’s intellectual life in building the education system, but also on faith and character, following Article 31 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution. He believes the two issues have not reached an ideal condition and are a challenge for all elements of the nation to improve on.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Lambang S.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 6/22/2021 09:18 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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