Islamic body offers assistance for bright but poor students

Jakarta, NU Online
The National Zakat Management Body (Baznas) on Saturday launched a program to pay for bright but poor youths to study in state universities.

Under the program, called "One family, one scholar", the mandatory alms management body will provide full scholarships to students whose immediate family members do not have a university education.<>

Baznas chairman Didin Hafidhuddin said the scholarships, worth Rp 1 million (US$107.30) per student per month, would cover tuition fees and study and living expenses until graduation. The recipients are required to work for Baznas offices in their respective regions for two years after completing their studies.

For the first year, Baznas hopes to provide scholarships for 1,000 students, although funds are currently available for only 130 students.

"We hope this program will motivate underprivileged high school students to continue their studies at university, while encouraging those obliged to pay zakat to spend their money on supporting education," Didin said.

Baznas spokeswoman Dewi Triwulandari said all poor students deserved the scholarships, regardless of their religion.

"But because 80 percent of the population is Muslim and many of them are poor, the priority is given to Muslim students," she was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.

Zakat is the Islamic concept of tithing and alms. It is obligatory for Muslims to donate 2.5 percent of their income to specified categories when their annual wealth exceeds a minimum threshold.

At the program launch, Baznas signed a memorandum of understanding with 13 state universities that will enroll students who receive scholarships from Baznas.

The universities include University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in West Java, Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta and Hasanudin University in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar.

IPB rector Heri Suhardiyanto, representing the state universities, said the program helped higher education institutions realize their intention to provide wider access to underprivileged students.

"We have many students who demonstrate good academic achievements but come from poor families. We've been trying many ways to find scholarships for these students; we've contacted businesses and alumnis and applied through the cross-subsidy system," said Heri, who hailed the program as a breakthrough.

He suggested Baznas let would-be students know about the program while they were still in high school. He said the program would mean underprivileged students would not be discouraged by the high university tuition fees.

The Education Ministry's director general for higher education, Fasli Jalal, said the program was in line with the government's target of increasing Indonesia's college participation rate from 17.2 percent to 18 percent within two years.

Fasli said of the country's 28 million people between the age of 19 and 24, only 4.3 million were studying at college.

The ministry data also show only 3 percent of the country's poorest 20 percent went to university, compared with 43 percent of the country's richest 20 percent. (dar)