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Elementary schools crumble despite Jokowi's promises
Jakarta Post - October 25, 2016
However, his plans for every child to achieve 12 years of education, either at regular or vocational schools, may have hit a stumbling block with eroding elementary education facilities that could deprive students of their right to get a proper schooling.
The Constitution mandates that a minimum of 20 percent of state and regional budgets be dedicated for education, but instead of getting better, much work needs to be done just to prevent the elementary program from deteriorating further.
Data from the Education and Culture Ministry show that about 70 percent of the country's school facilities, specifically classrooms, are damaged. Furthermore, in the last four years, about 5 million children have dropped out of elementary school or decided not to continue to junior high school, according to the data.
Jokowi has been working, through the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP) program, to persuade dropouts back to school to complete the 12 years of compulsory schooling since he took office in 2014, but the education aid has been poorly distributed.
The government is relying on the KIP to help ensure all citizens receive the free 12 years of education, with low-income elementary school pupils eligible to receive Rp 225,000 (US$17.67) per semester, while junior and senior high school students receive Rp 375,000 and Rp 500,000 per semester, respectively.
As of September, only around 6.7 million of the 17 million cards issued had been received by their rightful recipients, partly as a result of a lack of coordination among regional authorities.
The country also seems to lack competent teachers at present, though the government has been conducting the teacher competency test (UKG) since 2012 to ensure teacher quality.
However, the UKG test does not lead to an improvement in teacher quality, as it does not thoroughly measure all of the indicators required for a good educator, education expert Itje Chodijah has said.
"The UKG test does not reflect the real situation, as it only assesses professional and pedagogical competence. What is lacking from the test is personality and social competence," Itje told The Jakarta Post.
Former education minister Anies Baswedan seemed to make a good start in education reform as he revoked the national exams as the main tool to determine graduation, a policy that had led to widespread distress and cheating among students and teachers. There has also been curriculum changes, but none of the new policies have actually had direct outcomes.
The government has claimed successes in Jokowi's two-year tenure. The education ministry claims the progress can be seen in the improving Human Development Index (HDI).
The HDI, launched by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), showed a 0.75-point increase last year, from 68.8 in 2014 to 69.6 in 2015. The education sector in the index also saw a 0.82-point increase, from 60 in 2014 to 61 in 2015.
According to the ministry, the improved HDI was due to the better schooling of people aged above 25 years, which saw an increase to 7.8 years in 2015 from 7.7 years in 2014. Although this success is attributable to previous administrations, the country did witness an increase in expected years of schooling in 2015, which was 12.55 years from an initial 12.39 years in 2014.
"We are currently focusing on efforts to achieve better access to education, to improve vocational education, which is a strategic move to increase productivity and competitiveness, and to introduce culture as an important part of the national education for better character building," Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said on Monday during an event to present the government's achievements.
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