Religion Teachers Still Marginalized
To date, however, only around 107,000 religion teachers have civil servant (ASN) status. This means that around 242,000 religion teachers with ASN status are still needed.
An Islamic religious education teacher delivers teaching materials to grade 2 students at SDN 16 Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, Monday (3/1/2022).
Teachers of religion play an important role in developing their students’ faith. However, attention is still lacking over importance of the teaching religion as a school subject, the number of religion teachers is still limited and most of them are not civil servants.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Religion teachers have quite an important role in developing faith among their students. However, their presence in schools still receives a little attention from the government.
The appointment of religion teachers has not yet become a priority as seen from the lack of attention from the local governments especially related to their appointment which is under the supervision of ministries, namely the Religious Ministry and the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry (Kemendikbudristek). According to the number of students and their religious affiliation as recorded by the education ministry, at least 350,000 religion teachers are needed.
This means that around 242,000 religion teachers with ASN status are still needed.
To date, however, only around 107,000 religion teachers have civil servant (ASN) status. This means that around 242,000 religion teachers with ASN status are still needed.
Also read:
> The Future of Higher Education Institutions
According to the Article 12 of Law No. 20/2003 on National Education, all students at every educational institution have the right to receive religious education according to their faith, and to be taught by teachers of the same faith. But this requirement is still difficult to fulfill.
/https%3A%2F%2Fasset.kgnewsroom.com%2Fphoto%2Fpre%2F2021%2F11%2F23%2F089af76c-8791-48ba-8979-770142b54663_jpg.jpg){kind=logo}
Children pass in front of the murals that adorn the walls of the village in Kebon Baru, Tebet, South Jakarta, some time ago.
With the introduction of the work contract employment status (PPPK) in 2021, proposals from regional administrations to grant ASN status to religion teachers have declined. In fact, many regions do not offer the position of religion teacher.
Therefore, many regions lack religion teachers. Malang, East Java, for example, only has number 536 religion teachers for Islam, whereas that region has around 800 schools. As a result, many teachers work more than their allotted time of 40 hours per week. In fact, according to the regulation, teachers’ workweek should be 24 hours.
In fact, some schools do not provide religion teachers for non-Muslim students because they do not have the budget.
South Sumatra also does not have enough religion teachers. Some schools hire part-time teachers to teach religion classes. In fact, some schools do not provide religion teachers for non-Muslim students because they do not have the budget.
Erma, the head of SD Negeri 13 Palembang elementary school, said last week that the school’s 610 students were taught by only two Islam religion teachers, one of whom was a nonpermanent teacher. The school could not hire more nonpermanent teachers because it did not have a budget for this. The school was also unable to provide religion teachers for its 10 non-Muslim students. "For Christian [students], we ask them to seek religion lessons at their church," said Erma.
Amser Simanjuntak, a Christianity religion teacher at Sembawa Development Agriculture Vocational School in Banyuasin regency, South Sumatra, said the same thing. Not all schools could hire Christianity
teachers because they lacked a budget and classrooms. As a result, many schools asked their Christian students to study religion at their church.
In Jakarta, not all Confucian students can be taught their faith in a religion class at school. In fact, students and parents must first submit a statement saying that they want to take a class on Confucianism.
Proposal
The central executive board chair of the Indonesian Association of Teachers of Islam, Mahnan Marbawi, said the association’s 235,000 members all taught in public schools. Around 70 percent were nonpermanent teachers with salaries below the provincial minimum wage, he said.
In addition, the dualism of the regulation on religion teachers had caused uncertainty over who is authorized to appoint religion teachers, both ASNs and contract teachers, under the PPPK scheme.
According to Mahnan, religion teachers at public schools are marginalized because the certification quota from the Religious Affairs Ministry was small. In addition, the dualism of the regulation on religion teachers had caused uncertainty over who is authorized to appoint religion teachers, both ASNs and contract teachers, under the PPPK scheme.
"Therefore, there should be certainty on the fate of religion teachers. We support the idea that religion teachers be placed under the Religious Affairs Ministry, so local administrations do not have to worry about funding for their salaries," said Mahnan.
The secretary of the education ministry’s Directorate General of Teachers and Education Workers, Nunuk Suryani, said that the limited number of ASN positions for religion teachers available to regional administrations stemmed from a number of complex factors, especially the financial capacity of each region.
Students of SMP Negeri 2 Nanusa Miangas, North Sulawesi, said goodbye to their religion teacher and math teacher, Saturdaydewo Sono, last Friday (6/3/2020).
In 2021, around 18,000 out of a total of 506,000 ASN positions proposed by local administration were allocated for religion teachers.
According to Religious Affairs Ministerial Regulation No. 16/2010, the ministry and the regional local administration have the authority to propose the appointment of religion teachers. The Religious Affairs Ministry’s director of Islamic education, Amrullah, said last week that he hoped the data on the appointment of Islamic teachers would be more accurate in the future, especially in relation to budget planning.
"Preparing [the budget] must consider many comprehensive factors, for example, taking into account disbursements and retirement, so the data will be more accurate in the future."
The government appointed 27,303 religion teachers in 2021 under the PPPK scheme. However, around 242,000 religion teachers are still needed at present. Although the demand is high, regional administrations have only proposed appointing 39,000 religion teachers this year. (ELN/MTK/SKA/DKA/RAM/WER/RTG)
(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi)
