1.8 Million Teachers Not Yet Qualified
Wednesday, 24 January, 2007 | 11:03 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Fasli Jalal, the Director General of Quality Improvement for Teachers and Educators at the Department of National Education, has revealed that 1.8 million teachers are yet to meet the minimal qualification of obtaining a degree.

“Out of 2.7 million teachers, 1.8 million of them have not yet been awarded a degree,” he said after attending a meeting at the Constitutional Court yesterday (01/23).

This year, he went on to say, the government is preparing 170 thousand scholarships for teachers so that they are able to meet the academic qualification of a degree.

In addition, the government also provides funds of around Rp400 billion for teaching certification tests that will be conducted for 200,000 thousand teachers who have degrees.

“This professional education will require funds of around Rp2 million per teacher,” he said.

Those who have been certified, according to Fasli, will obtain additional professional allowances of as much as their salary per month.

As regards the certification test, this will further be stipulated in a governmental regulation that is being prepared at the Department of Justice and Human Rights.

The regulation, Fasli explained, will consider a teacher's teaching experience, age, attendance of training courses and other experience such as book writing or winning various competitions.

“These will be all evaluated and will help reduce the amount of credits that must be met,” he said.

Rini Kustiani