Indonesian teachers push for better pay in education bill

In a hearing last week, House Commission X overseeing education gathered input from teachers associations and education observers on provisions for teacher governance in a proposed overhaul of the country’s education laws.

Teachers have urged the House of Representatives to revise the national education law to strengthen teacher governance, including by guaranteeing minimum salaries and better welfare regardless of employment status.

In a hearing last week, House Commission X overseeing education gathered input from teachers associations and education observers on provisions for teacher governance in a proposed overhaul of the country’s education laws.

The Indonesian Teachers Association (P2G) said the revision should prioritize strengthening teachers’ competencies, arguing that improving student performance requires greater investment in educators. It also called for better recruitment systems and a more even distribution of teachers nationwide.

The association proposed establishing a national teachers management agency to provide greater certainty and coordination in teacher governance, which is currently fragmented across multiple ministries overseeing general education, religious affairs and other programs.

The fragmentation has become more pronounced under President Prabowo Subianto’s administration, which has introduced new school programs under different ministries. The Garuda Schools, which cater to high-achieving students, fall under the Higher Education, Science and Technology Ministry, while the Sekolah Rakyat (community schools) program for children from low-income families operates under the Social Affairs Ministry.

Private-school teachers employed on a nonpermanent basis also have limited access to government recruitment programs for civil servants and government contract employees (PPPK), restricting their opportunities to secure standardized, state-funded salaries.

The Indonesian Association of Private School Personnel (Perisai) chair Anton Putrawan said the government should ensure that all teachers receive state-funded salaries regardless of their employment status.

“Whatever the regulatory arrangement, all teachers, whether they work at state, private schools or madrasah [Islamic schools], should be covered by the state budget,” he said.

Low salaries have long been a grievance among teachers nationwide, with cases of educators receiving only a few hundred thousand rupiah a month making headlines in recent years.

Hundreds of private madrasah teachers staged a rally in front of the House complex in Central Jakarta in May, protesting what they described as discrimination against private-school teachers and demanding opportunities to become civil servants.

“If we look into the [existing education laws], there is nothing in them that says teachers should be paid so little. But why does this problem keep happening?” asked Ubaid Matraji, an education observer from the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI).

Ubaid called for the bill to establish a clear minimum salary standard for teachers to prevent inconsistent interpretations of existing regulations and further discriminatory treatment.

P2G, Perisai and JPPI also urged the House to ensure that the constitutionally mandated 20 percent allocation of the state budget for education was fully directed toward core educational needs, including students, teachers and infrastructure.

“The education budget should first focus on improving education before other matters,” said Iman Zanatul Haeri of P2G, referring to the Constitutional Court’s July ruling that education funding should no longer be used to fund Prabowo’s flagship free nutritious meal program.

Responding to the inputs, Commission X member Edi Oloan Pasaribu of the National Mandate Party (PAN) also called for a more targeted allocation of the education funding.

“We have to make clearer how the 20 percent allocation should be calculated or redefined under this bill, where it should be distributed and what institutions should receive it,” he said.

Edi also backed the proposal for a national agency to oversee teachers, saying the fragmented workforce required more strategic management.

Commission X deputy chair Lalu Hadrian Irfani of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said lawmakers were ready to address teachers’ welfare, including through a minimum salary provision.

“When it comes to teacher welfare, it’s time we seriously addressed it,” he said, adding the amount still needs to be calculated.

The proposed revision seeks to consolidate the 2003 National Education System Law, the 2005 Teachers and Lecturers Law, the 2012 Higher Education Law and the 2019 Pesantren (Islamic Boarding School) Law into a more integrated legal framework for education.

Listed as a House-initiated bill under this year’s priority legislation program, the revision is still being drafted by Commission X.

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