Teachers urge lawmakers to guarantee minimum salaries and strengthen fragmented national teacher governance.
Indonesian teachers are pressing lawmakers to use a major overhaul of national education laws to address longstanding problems in pay, recruitment, welfare, and workforce management.
Teachers Demand Minimum Salary Guarantee
Teachers’ groups have urged the House of Representatives to include a clear minimum salary standard in the proposed Education Bill, regardless of whether educators work at state schools, private schools, or madrasah. The Indonesian Association of Private School Personnel, or Perisai, argued that all teachers should receive state-funded salaries, while education observer Ubaid Matraji of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network said explicit salary provisions were needed to prevent inconsistent implementation and discriminatory treatment.
Private Teachers Face Unequal Access
The reports highlight particular difficulties facing nonpermanent private-school teachers, who have limited access to government recruitment schemes for civil servants and government contract employees, known as PPPK. This restricts their opportunities to obtain standardized, government-funded salaries. Hundreds of private madrasah teachers also protested outside the House in May, calling for equal opportunities to enter the civil service system.
P2G Calls for Centralized Teacher Management
The Indonesian Teachers Association, or P2G, proposed creating a national teacher management agency to improve recruitment, professional development, and workforce distribution. The association argued that teacher governance is currently fragmented across multiple ministries, a situation that has become more complex as different ministries oversee programs including Garuda Schools and Sekolah Rakyat.
Education Budget Also Under Scrutiny
P2G, Perisai, and the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network also called for the constitutionally mandated 20% education budget allocation to focus on core educational needs, including students, teachers, and infrastructure. The groups referred to a July 30 Constitutional Court ruling requiring funding for President Prabowo Subianto’s free nutritious meals program to be separated from the education budget no later than 2028. Commission X lawmaker Edi Oloan Pasaribu also called for clearer rules on how the 20% allocation should be calculated and distributed.
Bill Remains Under Drafting Process
The proposed overhaul would consolidate the 2003 National Education System Law, 2005 Teachers and Lecturers Law, 2012 Higher Education Law, and 2019 Pesantren Law into a more integrated legal framework. Commission X deputy chair Lalu Hadrian Irfani said lawmakers were prepared to address teacher welfare, including a possible minimum salary provision, although the amount has not yet been determined. The bill remains under drafting by Commission X and is part of this year’s priority legislative program.
For Indonesians, the proposed Education Bill could become an important vehicle for addressing differences in teacher pay, employment status, recruitment, and professional management across the education system. For Singaporean readers following regional education policy, the debate offers insight into how Indonesia is attempting to strengthen teacher welfare while restructuring a large and fragmented national education workforce.
Sources: Asia News Network (2026) , The Jakarta Post (2026)
Keywords: Indonesia Teacher Salaries, Education Bill Indonesia, Teacher Welfare Indonesia, P2G Indonesia, Private School Teachers, Education Budget
