National Education Council: Protect Teachers and Students from Illegal Online Loans and Gambling
The National Education Council (DPN) for Primary and Secondary Education has expressed deep concern and issued concrete recommendations in response to the rampant phenomenon of illegal online loans (pinjol) and online gambling (judol) infiltrating school environments, targeting both teachers and students. The DPN assesses that the situation has reached an alarming stage and is negatively impacting the learning ecosystem.
According to data from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in 2024, approximately 42% of victims of illegal online loan practices are teachers, while 3% are students. This condition is exacerbated by the increasingly aggressive penetration of online gambling into the younger generation through online gaming media. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi) recorded that around 200,000 Indonesian children have been exposed to online gambling, with 80,000 of them being children under the age of 10 who fell into the trap via online games.
In the DPN’s view, the impact of this financial and digital crisis must not be underestimated as it damages the moral order and productivity of national education. For teachers, debt bondage from illegal online loans creates an increasingly heavy economic and psychological burden, potentially leading to a decline in work motivation and teaching quality in the classroom. The impact of online gambling on students is far more worrying for the nation’s future, affecting concentration and learning motivation, lowering discipline, causing addiction, impairing brain function, and leading to legal violations and criminality.
These financial and digital traps are no longer merely personal economic problems but a serious threat to the future of the nation’s education. Specific policies are needed to prevent the rampant spread and dangers of illegal online loans and gambling among teachers, students, and parents. The DPN noted that many believe economic pressures can be solved by using online loan services or even gambling, but in reality, these actions unknowingly create even greater problems in their economic lives.
The DPN stated that while the government has taken law enforcement and blocking measures to eradicate illegal online loans and gambling, existing regulations are not yet strong enough to protect teachers, students, and parents. Current policies have not been able to resolve the economic pressures they face. The council stressed the need for more specific and concrete policies from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to break the chain of this problem, including strengthening financial literacy for teachers, providing financial services through school cooperatives, and collaborating with philanthropic organisations to assist teachers experiencing financial difficulties. Additionally, there is a need to enhance guidance and training for teachers and students to be more economically empowered, strengthen counselling services to address online gambling addiction among students, and reinforce informal education involving families to increase parental supervision of children’s digital activities.