Indonesian president calls for cheap, high quality education

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for inexpensive and high-quality education across the country, local media reported on Tuesday. "Our education system must offer cheap and quality education," he said at the Ministry of Education and Culture office. "An ideal education system encompasses a good curriculum, high- quality teaching material, modern teaching methods, and cutting- edge infrastructure, all of these are relevant to the current information era," the president said, quoted by the Antara news agency. He added that education must also be accessible to all children regardless of their economic background. During his visit to the ministry, which was part of a series of the presidential visits to ministries and state institutions scheduled for the first two weeks of the holy fasting month of Ramadhan, Yudhoyono expressed hope that the national education program would be a great success, adding that the government had allocated sufficient funds. "I am optimistic that the quality of education can be improved through better management, target setting, and proper implementation so that the funds are not misused," he said.