President Prabowo Subianto (left) salutes the teachers during the National Teachers' Day commemoration event in Jakarta on Nov. 28, 2024. Also attending the event were (from left to right) Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Home Minister Tito Karnavian, Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Agus Subiyanto, National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Abdul Mu'ti. - Photo: Antara
JAKARTA: Teachers’ associations remain skeptical about President Prabowo’s recent announcement to significantly increase the remuneration of educators, noting that the new leader might have confused the plan with the prevailing certification programme that has been in place for over a decade.
In an elaborate event to commemorate Teachers’ Day last week, Prabowo delivered a fiery and tearful speech emphasising the vital role teachers play in the national education system, which his administration sees as key in ensuring Indonesia’s development.
As part of his effort to improve the educators’ welfare, the President declared that civil servant teachers would receive a monthly benefit worth their basic salary, and those who are not state employees would receive a Rp 2 million (US$125) professional allowance each month.
The pay rise, Prabowo went on to say, will be rolled out next year and will require teachers to attain a completion certificate of the government’s Teachers Professional Education (PPG) Programme.
The President also announced several skill-improvement programmes to be launched next year, including an educational aid aimed at teachers who have yet to attain a bachelor’s degree.
These policies were received with thunderous applause from the thousands of teachers in the audience at East Jakarta’s International Velodrome.
Later on, a number of teachers’ groups revealed that the monthly benefits for civil servant teachers and the professional allowance for their non-civil servant counterparts are nothing new.
“A lot of private school teachers have been in euphoria, thinking that [their pay] will have a fantastic increase by Rp 2 million [...] and civil servant teachers think their base pay will be doubled, when in fact, there will be no changes,” Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI) secretary-general Heru Purnomo said on Tuesday (Dec 3).
Heru said that civil servant teachers who had completed a certification programme had been rewarded with a monthly benefit worth their base pay since 2008.
This was made possible by a 2007 regulation from what was then the education and culture ministry.
A 2008 ministerial regulation also paved the way for non-civil servant teachers to receive a monthly professional allowance, although it was worth Rp 1.5 million at the time.
The regulation has been updated over the years and in its latest iteration, which was penned in May, outlined certain conditions for the monthly allowance to increase above the Rp 1.5 million mark.
“To straighten out public perception [of Prabowo’s promises], the FSGI is urging the government to clarify its policy on increasing teachers’ pay, particularly since it has a widespread impact,” Heru said.
Satriwan Salim, the national coordinator for education watchdog the Education and Teachers Association (P2G), said that Prabowo’s speech during the Teachers’ Day event had made it seem like teachers were having their base pay doubled, which has caused “confusion” among educators and necessitated a public clarification from his administration.
“Teachers certainly want to see their base pay doubled but we also know it will cause an irrational burden on the state budget,” Satriwan said.
“If [in his speech] Prabowo was just referring to the monthly benefit already in place, that’s not a new policy and has been our right for years.”
While less than expected, Satriwan applauded the Rp 500,000 increase in non-civil servant teachers’ monthly allowance.
But, he also said that the Prabowo administration must give more attention to non-contract teachers, teachers in privately-owned Islamic boarding schools and early childhood education teachers.
“These three groups are far more marginalised and have poorer welfare compared to civil-servant teachers and private school teachers, who have been getting a lot of the attention when it comes to certification and benefits,” Satriwan added.
Quantity over quality Amid intense scrutiny over the teachers’ pay increase plan, head of the Presidential Communication Office, Hasan Nasbi, told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday that the government is looking to ensure that an additional 600,000 teachers can access the additional benefits and allowances starting next year.
“This will add to the 1.3 million teachers who have been receiving [monthly] benefits, bringing the total to 1.9 million teachers in 2025,” Hasan said.
The government has allocated an additional Rp 16.7 trillion in the 2025 state budget to improve teachers’ welfare, bringing the total allocation to Rp 81.6 trillion.
“In the coming years, we will be looking to increase the number [of teachers accessing the benefits] even further, as we have a total of 2.9 million teachers,” he added.
Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Abdul Mu’ti, who organised the Teachers’ Day event in East Jakarta last week, was not available for comment when contacted by The Jakarta Post. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
