Jakarta – Indonesia needs nearly a million new teachers for state schools to replace those who retire, die or leave the job, as well as to anticipate the growth in student and school numbers, a ministry official has said.
Education and Culture Ministry spokesperson Ari Santoso said in a press release on Thursday that the ministry had made a proposal to the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry to recruit gradually, beginning with 100,000 teachers for state schools this year.
According to Ari, Indonesia currently has 2.1 million teachers nationwide. Yet, the country needs an additional 988,133 teachers. He did not elaborate on his calculation.
"However, assuming that some teachers are capable of teaching more than one subject in two different educational levels, I think we can make do with 707,324 teachers," Ari said.
With state schools in dire need of new teachers, Ari added, the ministry had suggested the recruitment of 100,000 new teachers every year, from 2018 to 2024.
The education ministry will also create a list to decide which schools should be prioritized for the additional teachers.
"The priority list will be made according to a school's student to teacher ratio and location," Ari said. (dpk)