“Currently, 1.6 million Indonesian teachers have not received certification allowance. This is what the government will encourage through the PPG program," deputy II of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), Abetnego Tarigan, noted in a statement to commemorate 2023 Teachers' Day on Saturday.
Tarigan affirmed that the government will also pay attention to the welfare of Islamic school (madrasah) teachers. In November, the government disbursed in-passing teachers' allowance of Rp1.4 million per person per month for 100 thousand madrasah teachers.
The government has also started covering the Workers Social Security Program (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan) for 221 thousand non-state civil servants (PNS) under the Religious Affairs Ministry, he remarked.
He affirmed that the government continues to meet the needs of teachers, especially in state schools. Of the target of achieving 1.1 million Government Employee Teachers with Work Agreements (PPPK), some 850 thousand teachers have been included in the program and will continue to increase by the end of 2023.
The government is currently also preparing a PPPK scheme to meet the needs of educational personnel, Tarigan noted.
"A special scheme to meet the needs of teachers in the Papua region is being prepared, namely by recruiting high school and vocational school graduates as teachers. They will be given the opportunity to teach while continuing their studies at the undergraduate level and professional education," he explained.
Apart from welfare issues, the government also drew attention to the competency of vocational teachers, he stated.
As an effort to increase vocational school teachers' competency, the Vocational School Center of Excellence (PK) program has provided larger space for teachers for self-development, both through teacher internship programs, industry-certified teachers, teaching practitioners, and collaboration with the business world and the industrial world, Tarigan revealed.
"The government wanted to improve the quality and welfare of teachers throughout Indonesia with those efforts," he remarked.
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Translator: Rangga Pandu A J, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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