Education in Indonesia falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (Kementerian Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah, or Kemendikdasmen), the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi, Sains, dan Teknologi, or Kemendikti Saintek), and the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Kementerian Agama, or Kemenag). In Indonesia, all citizens must undertake twelve years of compulsory education. This consists of six years at the elementary level and three years each at the middle and high school levels. Islamic, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Confucian schools are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Education is defined by Indonesia's 2003 National Education System Law as a conscious and planned effort to create a learning environment and process so that students can actively develop their potential. The law recognises three educational pathways: formal, non-formal, and informal. Formal education is structured and tiered and comprises basic, secondary, and higher education. Non-formal education is provided outside formal education and may be structured and tiered, while informal education is provided through family and the environment.
Schools in Indonesia are run either by the government (negeri) or the private sector (swasta). Some private schools refer to themselves as "national plus schools", which means that their curriculum exceeds the requirements set by the Ministry of Education, especially by using English as the medium of instruction or having an international-based curriculum instead of the national one. In Indonesia, there are approximately 170,000 primary schools, 40,000 junior-secondary schools, and 26,000 high schools. Eighty-four percent of these schools are under the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the remaining sixteen percent under the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
School system overview The Indonesian education system is the fourth largest in the world, with more than fifty million students, three million teachers, and 300,000 schools. The compulsory education system is divided into three levels: primary school, junior high school, and senior high school. Primary school and junior high school are free, while senior high school requires a fee. In 2018, the net enrolment rates for primary school, junior high school, and senior high school were 93.5%, 78.84%, and 60.67%, respectively. Tertiary education participation is low at 36.31%. In 2011, the completion rates for primary school, junior high school, and senior high school were 95.3%, 97.68%, and 96.8%, respectively.
Indonesian students can choose between state-run, non-sectarian public schools supervised by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) and private or semi-private religious (usually Islamic) schools supervised and financed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Although 86.1% of the Indonesian population is registered as Muslim, only fifteen percent of school-age individuals attended religious schools according to the 2000 census. Overall enrolment figures are slightly higher for girls than for boys, and Java has higher enrolment figures than the rest of Indonesia.
A central goal of the national education system is to impart secular knowledge about the world and to instruct children in the principles of participation in the modern nation-state, its bureaucracies, and its moral and ideological foundations. Beginning under the Guided Democracy period and strengthening in the New Order after 1975, a key feature of the national curriculum was the instruction in Pancasila. Children aged six and older learned its five principles by rote—belief in one God, humanitarianism, national unity, democracy, and social justice—and were instructed daily to apply the meanings of this key national symbol to their lives. With the end of the New Order in 1998 and the beginning of the campaign to decentralise the national government, provincial- and district-level administrators obtained increasing autonomy in determining the content of schooling, and the role of Pancasila in the curriculum began to diminish.
Public-school pedagogy emphasises rote learning and deference to the authority of the teacher. Teachers customarily do not ask questions of individual students; rather, they typically narrate a historical event or describe a mathematical problem, pausing at key junctures to allow students to call out responses that "fill in the blanks". By not identifying individual problems of students and retaining an emotionally distanced demeanour, teachers are said to demonstrate patience, which is admired in Indonesian culture.
History
Islamic kingdoms period The emergence of the Islamic state in Indonesia is marked by the acculturation of Islamic and Hindu-Buddhist traditions. During this period, the pondok pesantren, a type of Islamic boarding school, was introduced. Pesantren are typically located far from the hustle and bustle of cities, resembling the location of Karsyan.
Dutch colonial period Elementary education was introduced in Indonesia by the Dutch during the colonial era. The Dutch education system was a series of educational branches based on the social status of the colony's population, with the best available institutions reserved for the European population.
In 1870, with the development of the Dutch Ethical Policy formulated by Conrad Theodor van Deventer, some of these Dutch-founded schools opened the doors to Pribumi (native Indonesians). They were called Sekolah Rakjat (folk schools), the predecessor of what is now called Sekolah Dasar (elementary school). In 1871, the Dutch parliament adopted a new education law that sought to standardise the highly scattered and diversified indigenous education systems across the archipelago and expand the number of teacher-training schools under the supervision of the colonial administration. The public school budget was increased in stages from approximately 300,000 guilders in 1864 to roughly 3 million guilders by the early 1890s. Educational development often lacked funding because many Dutch politicians feared that expanding education would eventually lead to anti-colonial sentiment. Funding for education accounted for six percent of the total expenditure of the colonial budget in the 1920s. The number of government and private primary schools for natives had increased to 3,108, and libraries to 3,000 by 1930. However, spending sharply declined after the economic depression in 1930.
The Dutch introduced a system of formal education for the local population of Indonesia, although this was restricted to certain privileged children. The schools for the Europeans were modelled on the Dutch education system and required proficiency in Dutch. Dutch was also needed for higher education enrolment. Elite native and Chinese populations who lacked Dutch language skills could enrol in either Dutch Native or Chinese schools. The schools were arranged in the following levels: ELS (Dutch: Europeesche Lagereschool "European Low School") – primary school for Europeans HSS (Dutch: Hollandsch-Schakelschool "Dutch-Switch School") HIS (Dutch: Hollandsch-Inlandscheschool "Dutch-Native School") – primary school for natives HCS (Dutch: Hollandsch-Chinescheschool "Dutch-Chinese School") – primary school for Chinese MULO (Dutch: Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs "More Advanced Low Education") – middle school AMS (Dutch: Algemene Middelbareschool "General Middle School") – high school or college HBS (Dutch: Hogere Burgerschool "Higher Citizen School") – pre-university
For the rural population, the Dutch created the Desa Schools, or village school system, which aimed to spread literacy among the native population. These schools provided two or three years of training in vernacular subjects (reading, writing, ciphering, hygiene, animals and plants, etc.) and served as cheaper alternative schools. These village schools received far less funding than the European schools; thus the quality of education provided is often lacking. Despite its flaws, the number of village schools increased to 17,695 by 1930. The rest of rural education was left to Christian missionaries, who were considered more cost-efficient.
The segregation between Dutch and Indonesian people in education led several Indonesian figures to establish educational institutions for local people. Arab Indonesians founded Jamiat Kheir in 1905; Ahmad Dahlan founded Muhammadiyah in November 1912; and Ki Hajar Dewantara founded Taman Siswa in July 1922 to promote the emancipation the native population. The number of pesantren grew rapidly during this period.
During the colonial period, there was a large gap between the educated male and female populations. In 1920, on the islands of Java and Madura, 6.5% of the male native population were literate compared with only 0.5% of the female native population. A similar phenomenon could be observed in the Arab and Chinese populations, with 26.5% of the male population being literate and only 8.5% of the female population being literate. In the outer islands beyond Java, the literacy rates for the male and female populations were 12% and 3% respectively. Inspired by Javanese-born aristocrat Kartini, who died at the age of 25, the Van Deventer family worked to increase female involvement in education and received support from the Dutch government—eventually leading to the foundation of Kartini Schools in 1911.
In 1920, the Dutch founded the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia's first university-level educational institution, as well as other universities and colleges for native Indonesians on the island of Java. Most of these universities have become the country's top educational institutions. These institutions are as follows: School tot Opleiding van Inlandsche Artsen (STOVIA), a medical university which later became Geneeskundige Hogeschool in Batavia. Nederland-Indische Artsen School (NIAS), a medical school in Soerabaja. Rechts-Hoge-School, a law school in Weltevreden, Batavia. De Technische Hoge-School (THS), a technical school in Bandoeng and the first full-fledged university in the country (opened in 1920). Middelbare Landbouw-school, an agricultural college which later became Landbouwkundige Faculteit in Buitenzorg. Opleiding-School voor Inlandsche Ambtenaren (OSVIA), colleges for training native civil servants. Hollandsche-Indische Kweek-school, colleges for training teachers.
By the 1930s, the Dutch had introduced limited formal education to nearly every province of the Dutch East Indies, although by this period only 7.4% of the population were literate in 1931, and 2% were fluent in Dutch. Around the outer islands beyond Java, to meet demand for schooling, the Dutch government relied heavily on missionary schools that provided a basic education.
Japanese occupation
During the Japanese occupation in World War II, the operations of the Dutch education system were consolidated into a single system that paralleled the Japanese education system. These schools were organized with the goal of creating the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere of influence and trained students in military and physical drills that were anti-Western in orientation. The new curriculum also included the indoctrination of Japanese culture and history, such as requiring students to raise the Japanese flag and bow to the Emperor every morning. The Japanese made schools less stratified; despite this, enrolment shrank by thirty percent for primary education and ninety percent for secondary education by 1945.
Post-independence
After Indonesia declared its independence in 1945, the surviving education system was fragile and unorganised. There was a shortage of teachers, as most of them had been Dutch or Japanese. Very few Indonesians had experience in managing schools.