Primary and Secondary Education Minister Abdul Mu'ti in Batu, East Java, on Thursday outlined that the five efforts are providing scholarships to teachers, improving school infrastructure and facilities, facilitating teachers' certification, introducing artificial intelligence (AI) and coding, and implementing academic achievement tests.
As for the scholarship program, which targets teachers pursuing a bachelor's degree, he stated that his ministry will open a quota of 150 thousand people for 2026—significantly higher than this year's quota of 12,500 people.
"Each teacher will get a scholarship of Rp3 million (around US$181) per semester," he said.
To improve school infrastructure and facilities, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is renovating 16,111 schools this year. It is also providing interactive flat panels with a target of around 288 thousand schools.
Furthermore, the ministry is also seeking to improve teachers' welfare by providing certification facilities and training in various topics, such as deep learning, coding, AI, and counseling.
He assessed that better welfare and competency of teachers can have a positive impact on the development of education quality in Indonesia, especially in the fields of digital learning and information technology.
In addition, the ministry is carrying out academic achievement tests to measure students' learning achievements objectively and fairly.
For the initial phase, the tests will target 12th graders in November 2025. Meanwhile, elementary school and junior high school students are scheduled to take the tests in March 2026.
He expressed hope that the tests could motivate students to aim higher in their education.
"These are what we are pushing to improve education in addition to other programs that strengthen teacher organizations and those related to the improvement of public services," the minister said.
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Translator: Ananto Pradana, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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