Teachers Question Free Nutritious Meals Budget Efficiency

JAKARTA — The free nutritious meals program under President Prabowo Subianto’s administration is drawing fresh scrutiny, as educators question whether the implementing agency is truly serious about budget efficiency. The National Nutrition Agency’s (BGN) large funding request has sparked a new dispute at a time when national education spending remains tight.

The Perhimpunan Pendidikan dan Guru (P2G) says it does not believe BGN’s claim that it is evaluating and streamlining the free nutritious meals program. Its skepticism grew after the agency proposed an exceptionally large budget ceiling for the coming years. The move, P2G argues, clashes with earlier promises to reduce state budget leakages.

The Rp270 Trillion Budget That Raised Questions

BGN reportedly proposed a Rp270 trillion budget ceiling for the free nutritious meals program in 2027. The huge figure stands in sharp contrast to the restructuring and savings narrative that agency leaders have repeatedly presented in public forums.

Iman Zanatul Haeri, head of teacher advocacy at P2G, said the surge in the proposed budget shows BGN is not serious about improving the program’s governance. The evaluation promised during the pilot phase, he said, looks more like rhetoric than real action.

“We are justified in not believing that BGN is conducting an evaluation. In fact, they are proposing an enormous budget increase without a rational explanation,” Iman said when contacted on Sunday, June 21, 2026.

Why Education Funding Is at Risk

The teachers’ group says its doubts are rooted in fiscal reality. Indonesia’s limited state budget space could be absorbed by food logistics, while millions of students still study in inadequate classrooms and honorary teachers continue to struggle with low pay.

If the jumbo budget for free nutritious meals is approved, less money will be available for repairing damaged classrooms, buying textbooks, and improving teacher training. Schools in remote, frontier, and outermost regions could be pushed even further behind if budget priorities remain skewed.

School Facilities and Teacher Welfare Gap

Conditions on the ground show that many elementary schools in remote areas still lack proper sanitation facilities. Teachers in the regions complain that the policy ignores basic school infrastructure needs in favor of an expensive, fast-moving program.

The issue of honorary teachers, whose pay remains below decent standards, has also not been resolved. P2G says providing meals to children matters, but serving food in classrooms with leaking roofs and underpaid teachers is a bitter irony in modern education.

Demand for Transparent Funding Formula

P2G is pressing the government to make public the funding formula used by BGN to arrive at the Rp270 trillion figure for free nutritious meals. The public, especially the education community, deserves details on operations, supply chains, and logistics distribution that could drive costs so high.

Strict oversight from the House of Representatives and civil society is now seen as essential to prevent possible budget misuse at the regional level. Without strong checks, the school nutrition program risks becoming an uncontrolled burden on the state budget and harming education quality over the long term.

The teachers’ skepticism is a warning sign for policymakers. The Finance Ministry and the House now face the task of reviewing the massive proposal before it is formalized in the state budget law. The next debate will decide whether free nutritious meals can stay ambitious without crowding out other urgent education needs.