EU to fund Indonesia's education program

English.news.cn, 2010-05-25 14:11:10

JAKARTA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on Tuesday signed an agreement in which it provided grant worth 2.4 trillion rupiah (about 258.3 million U.S. dollars) to Indonesia for the new "Education Sector Support Program", to support the country's effort towards achieving the education-related Millennium Development Goals and providing nine years of quality basic education to all children by 2015.

Minister of National Education Muhammad Nuh in his remarks said that the government saw the provision of qualified education to all children as one of key priorities.

"Therefore, we welcome the new EU grant," said Nuh.

The Education Sector Support Program will be jointly supported by the EU and AusAID from Australia, whose contribution is expected to be announced later this year.

The EU grant contribution will be channeled as sector budget support and as such will directly support key policies and strategies in the new education of 2010-2014 to improve nation- wide access, quality and governance in basic education services.

As part of the EU-funded 258.3 million dollars contribution to the Education Sector Support Program, the EU will provide 240 million rupiah (about 25,931 dollars) over five years to support the government with technical expertise and access to international knowledge and best practices, in order to implement necessary reforms to achieve its education objectives.

The technical cooperation component will be managed by the Asian development Bank (ADB).

The signing ceremony took place in the two-day "Indonesia Education Partnership Forum" organized jointly by the Ministry of Education and the EU.

The forum gathered ten development partners of the EU to share and discuss with Indonesian government representatives and education stakeholders the lessons learned from their support to basic education.