Paradoxes of Appointing a Million Teachers

Many circles have lately spotlighted the preparatory mechanism for the appointment of a million teachers with the status of government employees under working contracts (PPPK) by the Education and Culture Ministry.

This appointment is based on the President’s policy through Presidential Regulation No. 98/2020 on the appointment of teachers with the status of PPPK and the right to receive salaries equivalent to those of civil servants.

Also read: Problems of Contract Teachers

This policy seems to be faced with a number of paradoxes.

Management of teachers

The first of the paradoxes is on the one hand, the presidential policy has been appreciated by various circles, especially honorary teachers who have so far dedicatedly assisted in our children’s education. On the other hand, however, this policy is sporadic, partial and only settles the tip of the educational issue without touching on the core of the problem to solve the crisis of management of teachers.

Data indicate that at present there are 4 million primary and secondary school teachers, who serve around 50 million students (Education and Culture Ministry, 20/12/2020).

By applying the international standard, Indonesia apparently has an excess of about 1.6 million teachers.

This means that a teacher only teaches 12-13 students. Meanwhile, the international ratio standard is 20-21 students per teacher. In Britain the ratio is 16-17 students per teacher, in Japan 27-28 students per teacher and in South Korea, one of the countries with the best education in the world, the average ratio is 34.7 or 34-35 students per teacher (UNESCO, 2017). By applying the international standard, Indonesia apparently has an excess of about 1.6 million teachers.

Also read: Non-Permanent Teachers Still Not Prosperous Despite Decades of Devotion

By referring to data from Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim, who quoted the Basic Education Data (Dapodik 2020), the number of state civil servant (ASN) teachers available today in state-run schools is only 60 percent of the total actually needed. This means there are already 2.4 million ASN teachers for 50 million students so that the ratio is very ideal, equal to the average international standard of 20-21 students per teacher (Kompas, 11/12/2021).

If the state is present to regulate the placement and even distribution of ASN teachers properly throughout the country, there is no more necessity to appoint new teachers.

Children’s future neglected

Second, on the one hand, the government has adopted various policies to promote the welfare of ASN teachers and honorary teachers through the utilization of the school operational aid (BOS) and other central and regional government measures.

Even in the fiscal year of 2020, the government allocated remuneration subsidy aid (BSU) worth Rp 3.6 trillion to around 2 million teachers and non-ASN educational personnel within the Education and Culture Ministry. This policy has certainly been appreciated by various parties, particularly those still with non-ASN status.

But on the other hand, the allocation policy using 20 percent allotment from the State Budget of Income and Expenditure (APBN) and the Regional Budget of Income and Expenditure (APBD) for education as stipulated by the constitution has turned out to leave almost nothing in the interests of 50 million students.

Also read: Managing Teachers with Promise

Nearly the entire allocation was not spent on the enhancement of educational quality, but rather on the salaries of central and regional teachers and educational personnel. The World Bank reported that 86 percent of the APBN and APBD fund for education was consumed for the welfare of teachers and educational personnel, even in 32 regencies/cities the amount reached 90 percent, not spent on improving children’s learning quality.

This rate is far higher than that in Vietnam, with a welfare budget allocation of only 42 percent, Finland with 55 percent, the US with 62 percent (Revealing How Indonesia’s Subregional Governments Spend their Money on Education, 2020, page 68).

Also read: Transforming Teachers

This populist policy reminds me of the expression of Gabriella Mistral, a 1945 literature Nobel laureate, who said, “Today, we are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot….”

It remains to be seen whether we are able to manage the use of our educational budget with the best priority given to the future of our children.

Effectiveness of teacher certification

Third, various polemics in society frequently indicate that the low quality of education stems from the low level of teachers’ welfare, but on the other hand there are also dissenting publications. The World Bank, for instance, in its publication, Spending More or Spending Better: Improving Education Financing in Indonesia (2013), showed that teachers already receiving certification support and those as yet uncertified displayed relatively similar achievements.

The teacher certification program has been implemented by the Education and Culture Ministry since the enforcement of Law No.14/ 2005 on teachers and lecturers, requiring educators’ minimum qualifications and certification, yet the certification support already costing around Rp 80 trillion annually has had no impact on the improvement of national educational quality.

Pearson Global Education League Table (2012) put Finland, South Korea and Singapore on top of its list and Indonesia ranked lowest in the world.

Also read: Notes on 75 Years of National Education

The promotion of teacher welfare through certification support only managed to reduce the number of teachers doing second jobs from 33 percent before certification to 7 percent after certification (page 73).

Fourth, there are two different views of the appointment of a million honorary teachers as PPPK teachers. Some have proposed that honorary teachers already with over 10 years’ experience, for instance, should not enter selection tests but should be directly appointed as PPPK teachers if other requirements are fulfilled.

Also read: Transformation of Teachers and School Leaders

On the other hand, Nadiem Makarim has ruled that honorary teachers are allowed to enter PPPK selection three times.

With the polemics, we have learned from experience in implementing the program for portfolio-channel teacher certification regulated in the procedure for Occupational Teachers’ Certification 2009 (Higher Education Directorate-General, 2009), with no selection tests, education and training. Research by the World Bank has shown that after surveying 240 state primary schools (SD) and 120 junior high schools (SMP) all over Indonesia by involving 39,531 students, no effect of the teacher certification program was found on students’ study results in SD as well as SMP (World Bank, 2009).

In order to ascertain the quality of PPPK teachers to be recruited, besides giving the opportunity to honorary teachers to enter selection three times, priority can also be given to those coming from higher educational institutions with A-accreditation.

Systemic reordering

Finally, in the future the state will hopefully be really present to redress the problem of teachers in a systemic manner, rather than in a partial and piecemeal way as apparent so far.

KOMPAS/AYU PRATIWI

Hafid Abbas

The reordering starts from the preparation of teacher recruitment at reputed educational personnel training institutes (LPTK), their appointment according to needs, their evenly arranged placement, their continued professional career development as well as their appropriate and better measured welfare promotion.

Hafid Abbas, Professor, Faculty of Education, Jakarta State University, and Visiting Professor at Tsai Lecture Series, Harvard University 2006

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira.