Indonesia pushes for higher teacher wages and school funding amid shortages

Legislator Esti Wijayati of the PDIP party warned that teachers will shy away from the profession if their welfare is ignored. She emphasized that adequate social security and a living wage are essential to attract and retain educators, especially in remote “3T” regions. Wijayati noted a shortage of 1,600 teachers even in Yogyakarta, a traditional education hub, and called for official data on teacher resignations to gauge the crisis. She also urged the government to tailor policies to the specific conditions of isolated schools, where class sizes may be very small.

Separately, Golkar’s parliamentary faction argued that the current school operating assistance (BOS) of roughly Rp 900,000 per student per year covers only about five percent of actual education costs. According to the faction’s calculations, an ideal budget would be Rp 18 million per student annually. Party secretary Muhammad Sarmuji said the gap must be closed if Indonesia is to achieve “advanced nation” status, stressing that the existing funding is far from sufficient.