Ministry of Religious Affairs Prepares 14,080 Positions for Madrasah Teacher Promotion Exams
The Ministry of Religious Affairs is preparing 14,080 positions for the 2026 Madrasah Teacher Competency Test for Promotion (UKKJ). This total consists of 2,319 positions for the Junior Expert level and 11,761 positions for the Senior Expert level.
Director of Madrasah Teachers and Education Personnel (GTK) Fesal Musaad stated that the large quota is intended to accelerate the career development of madrasah teachers through a competency-based system. The UKKJ is planned to take place in October 2026. The Directorate of Madrasah GTK is currently finalising the process of verifying and synchronising data on prospective participants through a coordination meeting in Jakarta. The meeting involved the Directorate of Madrasah GTK, the Bureau of Human Resources of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Directorate of Islamic Education, and the Competency Test team from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
“The UKKJ is not merely a mechanism for promotion. What we want to build is a culture of lifelong learning so that teachers continuously improve their competence, which directly impacts the quality of learning in madrasahs,” Fesal said, as quoted from an official statement by the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Friday, 24 July 2026.
According to Fesal, the data verification and synchronisation process is a crucial stage to ensure that participants truly meet the requirements. He requested that all parties strengthen coordination and ensure the data used is valid before it is sent to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education’s system. He also asked that all stages of implementation be arranged in a measurable manner, from data validation and information distribution to the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, to administrative verification of participants, the examination process, and the issuance of certificates as the basis for promotion.
Fesal also emphasised the importance of digital transformation in teacher competency development. He said the use of digital platforms will expand teachers’ access to competency improvement services, so they are no longer solely dependent on face-to-face training.
Head of the Sub-directorate for Madrasah GTK Development, Imam Bukhori, explained that the coordination meeting focused on finalising all technical aspects of the 2026 UKKJ implementation, from regulatory alignment and participant data validation to the preparation of the implementation timeline. Imam stated that the UKKJ is planned for October 2026, after all stages of data synchronisation, administrative verification, and document filing are completed.
The implementation of the Madrasah Teacher UKKJ refers to the Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform Regulation Number 1 of 2023 concerning Functional Positions, which requires functional officials to take and pass competency tests as a requirement for promotion. This provision is reinforced by Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform Regulation Number 21 of 2024 concerning Functional Teacher Positions, as well as the Decree of the Minister of Religious Affairs Number 694 of 2025 concerning Implementation Guidelines for Competency Assessment within the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
The 2026 UKKJ is a continuation of the programme previously run in 2024. At that time, the Ministry of Religious Affairs participated in two UKKJ periods, resulting in 11,339 civil servant teachers passing the competency test. In 2025, the Ministry of Religious Affairs did not participate in the UKKJ as it focused on completing the promotion process for teachers who had already been declared successful. Of that number, 9,821 teachers, or approximately 93.4 percent, have been proposed for promotion, while 1,518 teachers are still in the administrative completion process.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs hopes that more madrasah teachers will have the opportunity to advance their functional positions based on competence. This step is expected to strengthen teacher professionalism while improving the quality of madrasah education services throughout Indonesia.