Yuli Tri Suwarni and Rizal Harahap, Bandung, Medan – To commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI) on Tuesday, thousands of teachers across the country staged rallies demanding improvement in their working conditions.
In Bandung more than 20,000 teachers working on contract at private schools across West Java urged the National Education Minister to require all foundations to pay educators the minimum wage as set for each regency and municipality.
The coordinator of the Private Teachers Forum in West Java, Dede Permana, said Tuesday most private teachers across the province were paid between Rp 250,000 (US$19.53) and Rp 300,000 a month.
"Only a few contract teachers receive an additional Rp 200,000 in allowances, so they are earning below the minimum wage set for laborers."
He said private teachers' salary levels were inhumane and denigrated the teaching profession, an honorable career. Their compensation was far below public teachers' salaries which reached up to Rp 2 million or Rp 3.5 million, he said.
"It's discrimination. We're doing the same job as those teachers," Dede said, adding contract teachers also lacked insurance benefits and job security public teachers depended on.
Separately, hundreds of teachers from the Indonesian Private Teachers Union (PGSI) in Medan staged a rally in front of the legislative council building, demanding the city pay more attention to their welfare.
The Medan PGSI leader, Partomuan Silitonga, said the living standard of most of the 21,860 private teachers in Medan did not meet standards set out in the human needs index. "Many private teachers are still paid between Rp 200,000 and Rp 300,000."
To make a decent living, Partomuan added, private teachers had to work outside teaching hours, driving pedicabs or working as day laborers.
"It seems the government closes its eyes and lets the teachers' commitment to educate their students weaken," the union leader said, adding the demonstrators also demanded the Medan administration set private teachers' minimum pay to match the minimum wage for laborers.
"Teachers working for private institutions currently earn less than factory workers with no more than a junior high school degree. They are entitled to earn not less than Rp 918,000 a month. Why doesn't the government care about us, who have higher degrees but receive less compensation? If we're prosperous enough, we can assure the students will achieve more," Partomuan said, adding some 400 teachers who had passed the certification test more than a year ago had yet to receive the higher compensation they were entitled to. PGSI Medan urged the city to increase private teachers' income from Rp 200,000 to between Rp 700,000 and Rp 1 million per month.
Private teachers were also asking for allowances which match those of public school teachers, including an annual 13th salary, meals allowance, leave dispensation and insurance.
Separately in Semarang, about 100 contract teachers and officials from several regions in Central Java staged a rally in front of the governor's offices, demanding the provincial administration put them on the civil servant rolls because they had already work for 10, some 15, years at a monthly salary of Rp 200,000.
In Central Java alone, 27,000 teachers and education administrators officers work as temporary or contract employees.
[Suherdjoko contributed to the article from Semarang.]