JAKARTA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that the government's free nutritious meal program cannot be funded through the constitutionally mandated education budget and ordered the two allocations to be fully separated starting with the 2028 state budget.
The court partially granted a petition challenging a provision in the 2026 State Budget Law that classified the program as education spending.
Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia Suhartoyo said the provision had expanded the constitutional definition of education expenditure beyond its intended scope.
Constitutional Court Justice Enny Nurbaningsih said the Constitution requires at least 20 percent of the state budget to be allocated to core education needs, including students, teachers, education personnel, infrastructure, curricula, and educational evaluation and development.
The free meal program does not fall within those categories, she said.
The court said the program could remain under the education budget in 2027 only if its funding did not reduce the constitutionally mandated minimum allocation for education. Its financing must be fully separated from the education budget beginning in 2028.
The ruling came as the government prepares the 2027 state budget.
Indonesia launched the nationwide free nutritious meal program in 2025 to provide daily meals to schoolchildren, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups. Its funding mechanism has drawn public scrutiny. ■