Dyaning Pangestika, Jakarta – The government is encouraging people with disabilities to apply for this year's civil-service enrollment test as more ministries have opened up opportunities for the disabled.
Following the issuance of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Regulation (Permenpan) No. 36/2018, disabled people aged from 18 to 35 may apply to become civil servants. The disabled applicants are required to attach a statement letter that specifies their disability type upon registering.
The National Civil Service Agency stated on its Twitter account that at least 2 percent of positions in central government institutions and 1 percent of positions in regional institutions are reserved for disabled applicants. The total number of openings for fresh recruits is more than 238,000.
Disability activist Trian Airlangga said that this was not the first time that the government had allocated a quota for people with disabilities. Although he welcomed the news, Trian also felt that the disability quota was still not large enough and some improvements needed to be made.
For example, Trian stated that there should be a different minimum education requirement for disabled candidates.
He explained that some people with disabilities enrolled in school later than able-bodied people as they had limited access to education.
"I entered senior high school when I was 18 years old, which is much older than other Indonesian kids when they first enter high school," Trian said. One of his friends, he added, even entered elementary school at the age of 20 years old.
"We have no issues with our thinking capacity, it's just that we have very limited access to education," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Trian also felt that the announcement did not reach the disabled communities since it was not widely publicized, unlike the announcement for able-bodied people.
"It is such a shame that the government did not put more effort into the announcement," he said.
On Friday, several ministries and institutions, including the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, the Tourism Ministry, the Communications and Information Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced openings for disabled applicants to fill several positions. (evi)