"Following an increase in education budget, I have instructed the culture and education minister to improve and expand the reach of Bidikmisi scholarship program," the president stated during a gathering of one-thousabd Bidikmisi scholarship recipients here on Thursday.
Bidikmisi is the Education and Culture Ministrys scholarship program that was launched by Minister Muhammad Nuh during his first 100 days in office in 2010.
It is a scholarship scheme that targets talented students, particularly from poor families, to pursue tertiary education.
The head of state asserted that the state has the moral responsibility to ensure that all citizens, with or without money, have access to education.
"Education is for all and therefore there should be no child in this country who does not attend school because of financial difficulty," the president noted.
During the gathering, Yudhoyono was accompanied by First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, Education and Culture Minister Muhammad Nuh, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik, and Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Nuh added that Bidikmisi is aimed to break the long-held myth that poor students cannot enjoy tertiary education.
"We want to exempt them from all tuition fees and provide them with the cost of living," he elaborated.
By late 2013, 149,768 students from 98 state institutes of higher learning and 590 private institutes of higher learning across Indonesia received the scholarships.
This year, the government plans to provide scholarships to 60 thousand freshmen.
The minister added that only 1.7 percent of students from poor families studied at institutes of higher learning in 2007, and the figure increased to 4.7 percent in 2011.
"We hope 15 percent of students from poor families will enjoy tertiary education in the next five years," he asserted.
(O001/INE/H-YH)
EDITED BY INE
(KR-BSR/H-YH)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
