House Commission VIII Proposes Incentive Scheme for 638,000 Private Madrasah Teachers

JAKARTA— Deputy Chairman of the DPR RI Commission VIII, Abidin Fikri, has requested that the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Kemenag) promptly seek new breakthroughs to improve the welfare of 638,000 private madrasah teachers, who cannot be appointed as Government Employees with Work Agreements (PPPK) or Civil Servants (ASN) due to conflicts with Law Number 20 of 2023 on Civil Servants.

Abidin, also a politician from the PDI Perjuangan Party, explained that based on a joint meeting with the Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (Kemenpan-RB), the appointment of hundreds of thousands of these private madrasah teachers is hindered by the ASN Law because they work in private madrasahs (private schools).

“I believe a breakthrough is necessary. The 638,000 madrasah teachers proposed by Kemenag for PPPK or ASN status must not reach a dead end, leaving them in uncertainty,” Abidin stated at the Parliamentary Complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Tuesday (31/3/2026).

As a solution, Commission VIII of the DPR RI proposes that the government provide special incentives for these teachers.

One scheme offered is to calculate incentives based on the ratio of students across all madrasahs (Ibtidaiyah, Tsanawiyah, and Aliyah) and the teachers’ length of service.

Abidin provided an illustration: if the ratio is one madrasah teacher to 15 students, the total need for teachers can be calculated from the total number of private madrasah students in Indonesia.

“It just needs to be calculated: the total number of students in all madrasahs in Indonesia, how many madrasah teachers receive incentives, and with additional incentive values based on their length of service,” he explained.