DPR member urges PPPK teacher status fix to also address governance
Jakarta (ANTARA) - House of Representatives Commission II member Romy Soekarno has asked the government to ensure that the ongoing policy to improve the employment status of teachers with Government Employee Work Agreements (PPPK) also becomes a momentum for reforming national education human resource governance.
According to him, there have been structural problems in teacher management, particularly regarding the distribution of teaching staff, regional fiscal capacity disparities, and the suboptimal alignment between teacher needs and civil servant formation planning.
“Teachers are strategic instruments of human development. Therefore, teacher governance must not merely follow administrative government boundaries, but must follow national education needs,” Romy said in Jakarta on Friday.
He said that transferring part of the management of PPPK teachers to become central civil servants could be a momentum to build a more integrated national teacher management system.
The central government, he said, needs to have a more accurate database of teacher needs, while ensuring the distribution of teaching staff based on the real needs of each region. However, he assessed that this policy must be implemented with the principles of fairness, meritocracy, and regional affirmation.
On the other hand, he said that teachers who have long served in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) areas, island regions, border areas, and areas experiencing teacher shortages must receive attention and priority.
He said the reform of employment status must not result in a concentration of teachers in economically relatively advanced regions, while the areas that need them most continue to experience teacher shortages.
“I encourage the government to use teacher needs data based on region and subject, not just an administrative approach in determining formations and placements,” he said.
In principle, he also appreciated the government’s step in preparing a selection policy for PPPK teachers to become part of the central civil service under the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The policy is important as a form of career certainty and appreciation for teachers’ service.
“However, that support must be accompanied by oversight of three main aspects, namely status certainty, equitable teacher distribution, and the sustainability of state finances,” he said.