Indonesian teachers mostly overworked and underpaid

Leo Wahyudi S., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian teachers are overworked and underpaid, according to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report.

An Indonesian primary school teacher works 1,260 hours a year, which is very high, the report said.

Teachers' salaries, which were low before the economic crisis in 1997, have dropped further in recent years with annual salaries, including bonuses, of $2,938 Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) in primary and lower secondary education, and $3,537 PPP in upper secondary education, it said.

Purchasing Power Parities means the currency exchange rates that equalize the purchasing power of different currencies.

According to the basic reference statistics of 1998, Indonesian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in equivalent U.S. dollars converted to PPPs was $2,626, compared to education- standardized countries at $5,360, and this figure is considered low.

UNESCO was reporting on its analysis on trends in educational finance and governance with particular attention paid to teachers and teaching conditions in some education indicator countries, such as Chile, Thailand, Tunisia, The Philippines, Jordan, Malaysia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Indonesia, in its 2001 edition.

The economic crisis and political instability in Indonesia have contributed to a decline in GDP per capita between 1997 and 1999 from 3,091 to 2,626.

Decreasing population growth in Indonesia between 1997 and 2000 still unveils chances to improve the education system, but financial resources remain limited, the report said.

Unfortunately, the economic crisis led some countries to redistribute public funding between levels of education and categories of expenditure in such a way that the education budget was inadequate, it said.

Since the workload of the primary teacher is 1,260 hours per year, an Indonesian teacher's salary is low, the report said.

"Teachers are expected to respond to an increasing range of societal demands, but greater expectations are often accompanied by fewer resources."

The report said the global trend toward education and its expectation is high. Teachers are supposed to be experts in one or more specific subjects and this demands an increasing level of academic qualifications, it said.

Attracting skilled individuals and retaining them in the teaching profession are essential prerequisites for ensuring high-quality education in the future, the report said.

The report challenges individuals to remain in the teaching profession and the country to examine policy choices.

"The government is to regard material incentives, working conditions, hours of teaching, class size and student-teacher ratios to be factors of significance in attempting to improve the quality of education."