State teachers to remain in private schools

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister for Administrative Reform T.B. Silalahi gave his word yesterday that the government will not withdraw teachers on the state payroll from private schools.

The assurance was given following last week's protest of the plan by dozens of powerful ulemas who run pesantren (Moslem boarding schools). When ulemas from East Java raised the issue with President Soeharto on Friday, the head of state quickly gave his order to have the plan reviewed.

Silalahi said after meeting Soeharto at Merdeka Palace that there was never any intention on the government's part to withdraw teachers who are being assigned to work at privately run schools.

"It was all a misunderstanding," he said, referring to his decree no. 60/1995 which he signed last July.

The decree did refer to the government's intention to withdraw all civil servants from working at private institutions in order to cut back on state spending, but teachers and lecturers working at private schools and universities are being exempted from this regulation, he said.

He added however that other non-teaching civil servants who are working at private schools would be subjected to his decree.

Silalahi said he went to the president yesterday to explain the exception in the decree.

"That's why he instructed us to clarify this point and that there has been no change in the government's education policy."

Silalahi was accompanied by Soenarko, the chief of the Civil Service Administration Agency (BAKN).

The existence of the decree has already upset many ulemas, who say that the withdrawal of teachers from their schools could severely impair the government's own current campaign to expand the compulsory education program from six years to nine years.

While a number of private schools run highly profitable concerns, most of them still rely on state assistance and teachers provided by the government.

President Soeharto himself acknowledged during the meeting with East Java ulemas that the government's education program could not succeed without the support of private schools.

Silalahi said the decree was chiefly intended to restore some administrative order and allow BAKN to retain some control over recruitments.

He pointed out that it was this lack of control that led to the total number of civil servants, including teachers, working at private schools, to swell from around 88,000 a few years ago to nearly 125,000 this August.

BAKN also has difficulties tracking the number of civil servants working at state companies, enterprises run by provincial administration and private hospitals, he added.

As a result, many of these civil servants are effectively receiving two salaries, he said, adding that it is this issue that his decree seeks to resolve.

In the case of teachers working at private schools, he gave his word that the government would continue to pay their salaries and all their allowances. "So these teachers needn't worry."

Silalahi said his office has been concerned with streamlining the size of the administration to cut costs. The government, for example, has already limited the size of annual new recruitments to a size equal to the number retiring each year.

Silalahi denied that there was lack of coordination on this issue, which led to the misunderstanding and the controversy.

He said the government issues thousands of regulations and that there was no way to expect President Soeharto to know them all. (emb)