Enhancing Education

Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan has implemented major improvements in the education system. 

- Justin Doebele and Matahari Kesadaran

Indonesia’s public education has seen steady improvement over the last 15 years. Teaching is now one of the most popular and well paid jobs among civil servants, with Jakarta teachers earning up to Rp 15 million per month. As such, permanent teachers have increased 23%, while the number of part-time teachers has skyrocketed 860%. Today, 44 million students are enrolled in general education, a figure on par with industrial nations, and class sizes are smaller than in developed countries such as South Korea.

Despite recent growth, Indonesia’s education system continues to rank poorly on global metrics. Out of 65 countries surveyed, Indonesia ranked 60th in reading and second last in math and science. Many are concerned that Indonesia’s schools are not giving students the skills they need to succeed in the modern world. Speaking at a recent Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club event, Indonesia’s Minister for Education and Culture Anies Baswedan addressed the government’s plans to tackle these challenges.

The government has outlined three major problems with the education system: poor education quality, inequality between poor and rich areas, and lack of transparency among local governments. Anies stressed that although most critics blame Jakarta for failing students, the central government cannot be held fully responsible, because control of schools and teachers were transferred to local governments in 2001. This means that although the Ministry of Education and Culture plays a supervisory role, it no longer has direct power over how these schools are run.