The Indonesian government has allocated Rp492.5 trillion in the 2019 state budget to enhance the quality of human resources and educational facilities.

"Under the state budget policy, 20 percent of more than Rp492.5 trillion (of the state budget fund) this year is earmarked to improve the quality of human resources, including civil servant and non-civil servant teachers, infrastructure and facilities, and pupils," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated after attending a function marking the 38th anniversary of PGRI University in Semarang, Central Java, on Tuesday.

The minister underscored the need for the business world to participate in the promotion of human resources.

"Hence, we recently used the fiscal incentives or provide tax reduction of 200 to 300 percent for vocational education and for research and innovation," he noted.

While addressing the event to mark the 38th anniversary of PGRI University, she remarked that the government had continued to optimally utilize the state budget fund and fiscal policy to tackle various issues in the educational world.

The government has continued to prioritize the use of 20 percent of the state budget fund to increase the Indonesian children's access to quality education, he emphasized.

To help increase the access of less fortunate children to quality basic educational services, the government has launched the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP) and schools' operational funds.

This year, a total of 20.1 million students received assistance under the PIP scheme as compared to 19.5 million a year earlier. In the meantime, the number of students receiving school operational funds had increased sharply to 60 million in 2018. (ANTARA)