In 2003, Indonesia’s government ruled that central and regional governments should provide free basic education for all students. Yet despite this regulation, citizens haven’t seen this materialize. The regional governments complained about a lack of funding being handed down by the central government, while the central government insisted on regional governments cutting unnecessary expenses to fund the free education plan.
In Indonesia, basic education is often defined as education from grade 1 to grade 12 (grade school to senior high school). Most state-school buildings don’t have all these grades in one building complex. So let’s say, a village may have two grade schools (state schools, or public schools in some countries), one junior high school, and no senior high school. They would all be built in different places, be run by different school administration teams, and have different costs.
Each level of education requires students to register and pay different kinds of fees during this process. Those fees include a registration fee, a semester/quarter fee, and a building fee (usually in the cities or big towns). State schools would insist on providing uniforms, usually at a pricier cost than the market’s. Bear in mind that Indonesian state schools have at least three types of uniforms: the regular uniform, worn from Monday to Thursday; the “boy/girl scout” uniform, worn on Fridays and Saturdays; and finally the sports uniform, worn once a week during physical education.
When I was in school, some students were sent to the teachers’ office for a “school rule violation”, because their uniforms didn’t have the same exact shade of color as the one the school provided. So, these uniform fees are not something to be skipped, though some schools will politely say these fees are not compulsory.
During their time in school, the students will be “recommended” textbooks and workbooks by the teachers. Homework will come from the workbook, while the test will usually include some questions you can find in the textbooks. Most kids from rich or upper-middle-income families will buy the textbooks, or at least, consider buying them. Those from more middle-income backgrounds will just skip them altogether. The workbooks may not be affordable for those from the low-income families.
I remember a grade school classmate crying because everyone except him and two other kids had the workbook. The teacher later asked him to write all the questions in his notebook.
So, a student must pay several kinds of fees when they sign up for grade school. And after they graduate from a grade school, which lasts for 6 years, they’ll have to pay another set of fees for a junior high school, which is usually available in towns or sub-districts. Those who live in small villages will have to buy a bike, have someone ride them to school, or use a ride hailing service.
After 3 years in junior high school, they’ll have to complete another registration process for a senior high school, which is usually only available in bigger towns. That means the student will have to pay for transportation tickets or rent a student’s apartment, which translates to more cost.
But that’s assuming the student wants to complete their 12-year basic education. In reality, a lot of students dropped out after a grade school or junior high school.
These days, now some fees (like registration and tuition) are waived, you’ll still find state-schools charging parents for different kinds of “donations”. Other fees, like for the uniforms and books, usually still exist. Meanwhile, the fund used to help the students only covers a part of the school bills.
R. Suci Rohmadi, a high official at Yogyakarta’s Education and Sports Office, discussed the “unit cost” – or the cost a student needs to pay during their time in school – with the VOA Indonesia.
The unit cost for a technical vocational school student, for instance, is about IDR 5.5 million, and IDR 5.1 million for non-technical school students. The fund they received from the central government is only IDR 1.6 million. Rohmadi’s regional government can only add IDR 2 million to that fund, leaving the rest of the cost uncovered.
The cost for senior high school in Rohmadi’s region is lower than this, which is about IDR 4.8-4.9 million per student. Meanwhile, the central government’s fund is only IDR 1.5 million, and the regional’s is only IDR 1.5 million. In this region, a lot of breadwinners make less than IDR 1 million per month.
The expensive cost of education in the fifth-most populated country causes many students to drop out. Parents don’t have enough money to fund their kids’ education and would rather have their kids get a job to help with the family’s economy, or marry them young. The number of the dropped-out students fluctuated throughout the years, but we’ve seen some increases lately.
According to BPS (Indonesia’s Statistics Office), in 2022, the number of kids who dropped out from grade schools increased to 0.13% from 0.12% from the previous year. For junior high school students, the number went from 0.9% in 2021 to 1.06% the next year. For senior high schools, it’s from 1.12% in 2021, to 1.38% in 2022.
With fewer people finishing basic education, it’s hard for the country to prepare its people for the global competition. The Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) in 2022 showed Indonesia sitting at seventh out of the nine countries in the ASEAN region. Meanwhile, in the global ranking chart that included 133 countries, Indonesia ranked 82nd.
Indonesia’s education could use some improvements, which requires the attention of both central and regional government. The current model of allocating money is not effective since schools will still find a way to collect the money from the parents. There should be strict laws that come with real punishments to prevent this from happening. The flow of educational funding should also be deeply scrutinized to make sure it doesn’t go to anyone’s pockets. Otherwise, nothing will change.