100,000 teachers to become civil servants
100,000 teachers to become civil servants
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The long-cherished dream of contractual teachers across Indonesia
to be made civil servants will soon come true as the Ministry of
National Education plans to change their current status this
year.
"We are planning to appoint at least 100,000 contractual
teachers as civil servants and raise the honorarium of some
136,011 others to meet the minimum wage," Minister of National
Education Bambang Sudibyo said on Monday.
He announced the plan during a joint hearing with Minister of
Religious Affairs M. Maftuh Basuni and the House of
Representatives Commissions VIII and X, which oversee the two
ministries.
Currently, there are around 236,011 contractual teachers
assigned to public schools of all levels nationwide, with each
receiving only Rp 460,000 per month. Even their renumeration is
not paid monthly, but every three months.
The salaries of civil servants vary in every region. In
Jakarta, for example, a new civil servant gets a take-home pay of
Rp 1,850,000 per month.
Bambang said the government also proposed that the monthly
renumeration of the remaining 136,011 contractual teachers be
increased from Rp 460,000 to Rp 710,000. The provincial minimum
wages for workers are set at between Rp 340,000 and Rp 711,843.
Asked why only 100,000 contractual teachers would be made
civil servants, the minister said that was all the government
could afford.
The move to hire contractual teachers was aimed at temporarily
covering the shortage of teachers in schools throughout the
country.
Data from the education ministry shows that schools nationwide
lack some 427,903 teachers, causing a low ratio of teachers to
students.
The teachers signed contracts for a three-year period, with
the expectation of being hired as a civil servant at the end of
the contract, but in reality many of them have worked for almost
10 years without any certainty of being made civil servants.
Lawmakers and labor activists have repeatedly urged the
government to pay more attention to the contractual workers'
well-being, including making them civil servants.
"By appointing them as civil servants, we will save Rp 143.9
billion from the state budget as local administrations will pay
for their salaries," Bambang said.
He added that the quality of teachers would also improve as
they will be supervised by regional education offices.
House members told Monday's hearing that the contractual
teachers should be made civil servants without undergoing further
tests because they had already passed exams when they were
initially recruited.
They also urged the education ministry to provide 127,000 more
contractual teachers to meet the total need for teachers in
public and private schools.
The lawmakers also stressed that teachers should not be
treated as laborers in term of salaries. "It is a noble
profession," a legislator said.
In the meeting, the education ministry also put forward two
other options.
The first option is to extend the contracts of 174,232
contractual teachers, which will end in December. Contractual
teachers, however, will still be paid the same amount of Rp
460,000 per month.
A second alternative proposed that their monthly remuneration
be increased to Rp 710,000 and the contracts be renewed after
December.
The ministry's plan, however, would still have to wait for
approval from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. (003)