Irony of Education’s Front Line

Quality education begins with recruiting the best teachers, because teachers are the front line of education. To this end, teachers’ welfare must be improved.

Quality and prosperous teachers, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will contribute large economic benefits. Quality and prosperous teachers will produce superior human resources who are the key to national development.

Indonesia is predicted to become the world’s fifth developed country in 2030, if it has superior human resources and is supported by quality education. However, the PISA score shows that the quality of Indonesia’s education remains among the lowest, and one reason for this is the low quality of teachers and poor teachers’ welfare.

Also read:

> The Appointment of 1 Million PPPK Teachers is Chaotic.

> Fighting for Teachers’ Welfare

The salaries of Indonesian teacher are the lowest among OECD member countries. Ironically, the salaries of nonpermanent teachers are far below minimum wage, even though they play a key role in the country’s education. It must be admitted that Indonesia has been able to maintain education for so long because of the dedication of more than 740,000 nonpermanent teachers who have filled the shortage of around 1 million public school teachers.

The government program to recruit 1 million civil servant teachers under work contracts (PPPK) to cope with the shortage of public school teachers, as well as the efforts to improve the welfare of nonpermanent teachers, have not run as smoothly as expected. The Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry has started recruiting 1,002,616 PPPK teachers for public schools, but due to budgetary constraints, local administrations have been able to select only 506,252 teachers as of November, but only 421,046 passed the selection process. (Kompas, 26/11/2022).

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Layla Khoirrini, a contract teacher who works at SDN Bintara Jaya 1, Bekasi City, West Java checks the work of her students, Thursday (24/11/2022).

The authority over teacher recruitment, which involves a number of ministries and government agencies, as well as the regional administration’s responsibility for teacher management, has hampered the efforts to meet the need for teachers and ensuring teachers’ welfare; not to mention the government's plan to abolish teacher certification, which has an important role in improving their welfare.

Improving teachers’ welfare is the key to solving this problem. The hope vested in teachers to educate our children to develop into superior human resources must be balanced with a serious approach to managing teachers and their welfare.

Also read:

> Time to Care About Teacher Quality

The education ministry's commitment to prioritize the promotion of nonpermanent teachers as PPPK teachers must be balanced by the commitment of local administrations to overcome teacher shortages and develop human resources in their regions. The problem related to paying the salaries of PPPK teachers must be resolved by establishing a joint funding scheme between the central and local governments. Guaranteeing a budget allocation from the central government could be an alternative solution, but this guarantee must be outlined in formal regulations.

Improving the welfare of teachers for the sake of quality education requires extraordinary efforts from both the central and regional governments.

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.