Improving Teaching and Learning in Indonesia Background
Over the course of the past 15 years, Indonesia has implemented significant education policy reforms. These include the 2005 implementation of the Teacher Law, decentralizing some functions of the education sector to the district and school levels, and the constitutional mandate to spend 20% of the national budget on education.
Through the School Operational Assistance Grant (BOS) program and the link slot Smart Indonesia Program (Program Indonesia Pintar, or PIP), the government has also helped parents enroll their children in schools and increased resources for schools.
Indonesia’s education expenditures have significantly increased over the past 15 years as a result of these reforms. By 2018, education had received more money than any other sector, nearly reaching the 20 percent of total government spending goal. However, considering that the national budget accounts for 15% of GDP, this education expenditure – one of the lowest in the region – is only 3% of GDP.
Despite the expansion of Indonesia’s education system, significant implementation difficulties persist. Enrollment increased by 23%, or 10 million students, from 2001 to 2017, but quality only slightly improved. During this time, Indonesia’s scores on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) increased, but if it continues at its current rate, it won’t reach the OECD’s average scores for 60 years.
Indonesia will need to enhance school management, teaching and learning environments, and cross-level government coordination in order to realize its education potential. In education service delivery, decentralization has resulted in weak systems of checks and balances and enormous capacity challenges.
For the Indonesian education system to advance, these issues require practical solutions. These include providing effective programs of technical support for teachers and schools to improve student learning, orienting the school, district, and provincial levels to efficiently plan and budget to achieve national education standards, and selecting only the best candidates for teaching positions.
How the World Bank Helps Indonesia’s Students and Teachers
The Improving Dimensions of Teaching, Education Management, and Learning Environment (ID-TEMAN) program, which is funded by the Australian government and World Bank funds, aims to improve teaching and learning in Indonesia.
It was launched in 2016 and builds on the research and analysis that the World Bank and the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture have been doing together since 2005. By enhancing policy, operations, and implementation, it aims to support Indonesia in realizing its educational potential.
In order to help Indonesia meet the goals of its medium-term development plan for education service delivery, the program provides assistance to the government in addressing obstacles to better education outcomes.
The Indonesian government receives support from the World Bank in two primary areas:
efficient methods for teaching and learning that place an emphasis on the skills of teachers This includes helping to improve in-service teachers’ continuous professional development, looking at and improving professional preparation programs for pre-service teachers, looking over and helping to implement Indonesia’s Teacher Law of 2005, and creating student learning profiles.
improving the quality of education provided to all students, including school administration, transfer of funds, and teacher placement. A planned review of subnational public expenditures and on-demand assistance to the Ministry of Education and Culture are included in this work area.
