JAKARTA: The Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry has pressed ahead with its main programmes to improve the country’s education by focusing on infrastructure, technology and teacher welfare. But observers have raised concerns if these measures are sufficient to solve the root problems plaguing the education sector.
One year in to President Prabowo Subianto’s administration, Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Abdul Mu’ti said several of his programmes had been progressing well and are meeting targets.
When detailing the achievements of the ministry during a press briefing Wednesday (Oct 22), he commended the rollout of education digitalization, school revitalization and teacher welfare improvement.
As part of the digitalization effort, the ministry has distributed more than 45,000 interactive smart screens, or interactive flat panels (IFP), aimed at promoting interactive learning.
Another 120,000 units are being produced for distribution to meet the target of 288,685 schools nationwide. Showing two panels at Wednesday’s briefing, Mu’ti asserted that IFPs are not the same as smart televisions, “the function is far more advanced than that.”
He added the programme included training teachers on how to use the screens and making ready digital learning materials.
Another key policy was school revitalization, with the school ministry targeting to repair 300,000 damaged classrooms across 100,000 schools nationwide.
This year, authorities have started renovating more than 16,000 schools, exceeding the initial target of 10,000, with a budget of Rp 16.9 trillion (US$1 billion).
While the programme mainly relies on state budget, Mu’ti said he had seen examples in several provinces, such as Yogyakarta and North Sulawesi, where state funding only served as a stimulus for community-led contributions that enable schools to build new classrooms, not just renovating existing ones.
Long a concern among educators, efforts to improve teacher welfare has also seen progress via training and certification programmes to improve their capabilities, as well as allowance disbursements, the minister claimed.
A major breakthrough, Mu’ti said, has been the increase in teachers’ certification allowance. Non-civil servant certified teachers will receive an additional up to Rp 2 million per month, while their civil servant counterparts are paid an amount equal to their base salary.
What’s new, the minister went on to say, was an incentive for contract teachers: “More than 300,000 teachers will receive Rp 300,000 per month this year, with the amount to be raised to Rp 400,000 next year.”
Mu’ti clarified the welfare programme referred to additional allowances for teachers, not salary increases as widely reported by the media.
A recent public poll by survey institute IndoStrategi on ministerial performance put Mu’ti and his office at the top spot for their first year in office. But experts criticised the ministry’s primary focus on infrastructure, as it did not address the core education issues around human resources and governance.
“We have to be honest: The root problem in Indonesia’s education is not about buildings but about human capital and governance,” education sector observer Ina Liem said.
“We often fix the physical aspects,” she went on to say, “but the education policies remain weak, from poor planning that overlook local needs to weak supervision and budgeting that fail to address regional disparities.”
Acknowledging digitalization essential to respond to the needs of the era, she urged the government to build digital literacy and ecosystem readiness, rather than simply distributing devices.
“Many teachers are not yet familiar with the technology of interactive learning, while students also lack strong digital literacy,” Ina said.
“They know how to use the tools, but not the ethics or critical thinking in the digital world.”
Education and Teachers Association (P2G) advocacy head Iman Zanatul Haeri welcomed the school revitalisation programme, noting many were in need of repair. But he cautioned against potential corruption since the budget comes directly from the central government.
He also lamented the incentive scheme as it remained “insufficient”, underlying the contract teacher’s need of “a guarantee that their income meets basic living standards, as mandated in the Teachers and Lecturers Law”.
The only way to address the welfare issue, Iman added, was by establishing a nationwide minimum wage for teachers, as he recounted was explicitly stated in Prabowo and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka’s Asta Cita (eight missions) vision.
Under the vision, which also focuses on human development, Prabowo and Gibran pledged to raise the salaries of civil servants, including teachers, to match the provincial minimum wage. The administration also aims to introduce a national minimum wage for private school teachers.
“When will this be realized?” Iman asked. “We have been waiting for a year.” - The Jakarta Post/ANN
