Teacher Welfare Policies in Indonesia: How They Changed Under Each President

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Evolution of Teacher Welfare in Indonesia From Sukarno to Prabowo

Nice brief — below is a compact, source-backed timeline that summarizes how teacher welfare policy changed during each Indonesian presidential term (1945 → present), with concrete examples and laws/programs for each period.

I cite primary/authoritative sources for the most important claims (laws, government announcements, program launches). If you want, I can convert this into a slide deck or timeline graphic next — say the format and I’ll produce it right away.

 

 

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Sukarno (1945–1967)

• Context / policy direction: Early republican years—education rebuilding from colonial rule. Teachers were politically important (nationalist mobilizers) and teacher organisations consolidated after independence.

• Concrete example: Founding and role of the national teacher organisation PGRI (Persatuan Guru Republik Indonesia) in November 1945, which became the principal body representing teachers’ professional/political interests. (sdn7muntok.sch.id)

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Suharto — New Order (1967–1998)

• Context / policy direction: Strong central control of education; teachers increasingly absorbed into the civil service system (stable employment as a valued social status). Expansion of schooling (including national campaigns such as the wajib belajar programs) increased teacher demand but left persistent quality/welfare issues.

• Concrete examples:

  • Education was used to support national stability and central ideology under the New Order; the era emphasised centralised control of schools and curricula. (Innovative)

  • The Wajib Belajar (compulsory basic education) expansions—culminating in the 9-year program launched in 1994—greatly increased demand for teachers and shifted fiscal pressures (more teachers needed at local level). (Peraturan BPK)

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Transitional / Reform presidents — Habibie (1998–1999), Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur, 1999–2001), Megawati (2001–2004)

• Context / policy direction: The post-1998 reformasi era brought decentralisation of government and budgets to provinces/regencies. That structural change had large second-order effects on teacher pay, recruitment and welfare because local governments took on many education management and payment responsibilities.

• Concrete examples:

  • Decentralisation laws (1999): UU No.22/1999 on Regional Government and UU No.25/1999 on fiscal balance (DAU/DAK) shifted responsibilities and funding modalities to regions — creating wide local variation in how teacher salaries, hiring and allowances were managed. (these laws were enacted in 1999, signed during this transitional period). (Peraturan BPK)

  • Result: uneven teacher welfare across districts — some regions could pay better, others struggled to meet payroll/allowances (documented in decentralisation literature). (fiskal.kemenkeu.go.id)

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Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) (2004–2014)

• Policy pivot: Strong statutory & programmatic push to professionalise teachers and raise incomes through teacher certification and statutory allowances. This is the single most consequential legal change for teacher welfare in recent decades.

• Concrete examples / laws:

  • Undang-Undang No. 14 Tahun 2005 (Law on Teachers and Lecturers) — legally recognises teachers as professionals and mandates teacher certification and professional allowances. The law specified the tunjangan profesi (professional allowance) and other benefits. (Universitas Negeri Surabaya)

  • Regulations implementing the law: PP No.74/2008 (on teachers), and PP No.41/2009 (on tunjangan profesi and special allowances) operationalised payment of the allowance, often equivalent to one monthly basic salary for certified teachers. These rules triggered large flows of central funding for teachers who obtained certification. (ejurnal.inhafi.ac.id)

  • Program effect (example): From mid-2000s the government rolled out PLPG/PPG (teacher professional education) and certification pathways; certified teachers became eligible for tunjangan profesi (intended to bring income “at or above minimum living needs”). Implementation created both improved incomes for many certified PNS teachers and administrative challenges (delays, targeting, exclusion of non-PNS/honorer teachers). (feb.unila.ac.id)

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Joko Widodo — “Jokowi” (2014–20 Oct 2024)

• Policy pivot: Focus on operationalising earlier reforms (payment reliability, broaden access to secure employment), plus a major push to address the long-standing problem of low-paid guru honorer (honorary / contract teachers) by recruiting many as PPPK (Pegawai Pemerintah dengan Perjanjian Kerja) and tightening pay/administration.

• Concrete examples / programs:

  • PPPK route & mass recruitment: Jokowi issued regulations and pushed large-scale recruitment drives (targeting hundreds of thousands to ~1 million teachers to be absorbed as PPPK/ASN) so more teachers would have employment security and access to comparable pay/tunjangan. By 2021–2023 hundreds of thousands of honorer teachers were recruited as PPPK; Jokowi publicly reported large numbers (e.g. ~544k by late-2023). (detikfinance)

  • Payment reliability & administrative fixes: Jokowi repeatedly ordered that tunjangan profesi be paid on time and directed simplification of administrative processes to avoid delayed disbursements. (Presidential direct interventions in 2017 and afterwards.) (Antara News)

  • Practical problems and limits: PPPK recruitment solved part of the problem but raised fiscal and governance challenges (local financing for PPPK salaries, selection/implementation issues documented in government reviews). (Setkab)

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Prabowo Subianto (sworn Oct 20, 2024 → present, as of Nov 27, 2025)

• Policy pivot (early term): Rapid, high-visibility measures to boost teacher welfare (both cash/tunai allowances and payment mechanics), plus administrative reforms to make allowance payments faster and more transparent. The government framed teacher welfare as a top priority in 2024–2025 budget/announcements.

• Concrete examples / announcements (2024–2025):

  • Budget & targeted allocation: Presidential statements and government releases (Nov 2024 onward) show large allocations for teacher/dosen welfare in draft/2025 budgeting — figures cited publicly (e.g., RP allocations to increase teacher welfare; see presidency statements). (Presiden RI)

  • One-off/regular allowances & mechanics: Prabowo’s administration announced (and later implemented) policies to (a) give ASN teachers a one-time payment equivalent to one month’s basic salary and (b) increase support/tariff for non-ASN teachers (news and government releases reported concrete nominal increases and plans). (detikcom)

  • Administrative reform: In March 2025 the State Secretariat (Setneg) announced a new mechanism to disburse teacher allowances for regional ASN teachers directly into teachers’ accounts (bypassing intermediaries) to speed and improve transparency. This is a concrete operational change to welfare delivery. (Setneg)

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Cross-cutting trends and effects (brief)

1. From status to professionalism: Over time policy moved from treating teachers as political/social actors (early republic / New Order) to treating them as professional civil servants with statutory rights and professional allowances (post-2005). Law No.14/2005 is the legal hinge. (Universitas Negeri Surabaya)

2. Decentralisation created winners and losers: The 1999 decentralisation package (Law 22/1999; Law 25/1999) put financial responsibility at local level, producing uneven teacher welfare across districts and forcing later national corrective steps (central tunjangan payments, PPPK, DAK projects). (Peraturan BPK)

3. Certification + tunjangan profesi (mid-2000s →) drove improved nominal incomes for certified PNS teachers but left many contract/honorer teachers excluded — this gap motivated PPPK recruitment drives and more recent top-up allowances. (feb.unila.ac.id)

4. Implementation matters: Recurrent government action to ensure tunjangan are paid on time (Jokowi) and to make payments direct and transparent (Prabowo 2025 mechanistic reform) shows policy is now as much about cash-flow and payment systems as about laws on entitlements. (Antara News)

Sumber:

gemini.google.com copilot.microsoft.com perplexity.ai perchance.org chat.openai.com paragraphai.com bing.com/chat trends.google.com translate.google.co.id smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker unsplash.com

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