Padang – The Padang administration in West Sumatra has been criticized for appointing around 100 allegedly unqualified teachers as civil servants in public schools.

At least 100 temporarily employed teachers demonstrated at the Padang mayor's office on Tuesday to demand that the appointments by the local state employment agency be annulled. The agency was spending more than Rp 180 million to train the new teachers.

The protesters from the Association of Temporarily Employed Indonesian Teachers (IGHI) also rejected the allocation of the state funds for the training. They said the allocation of the funds had offended the around 7,000 temporarily employed teachers because none of them were made civil servants.

"The policy has clearly destroyed the world of education and belittled the profession of temporarily employed teachers who have not been appointed as civil servants despite assignments for many years," Yulfa Heri, leader of the Padang-based IGHI, said during the demonstration.