Dio Suhenda, Jakarta – The Jakarta administration has promised to offer more long-term and fixed placements for nonpermanent teachers in the city, following recent backlash over the sudden dismissal of over 100 contract educators across different levels of education – from elementary to senior high schools – last week.
The city government found itself in hot water recently after cutting at least 107 contract teachers in an action they called "cleansing" to respond to the 2023 Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) findings about procedural errors in the hiring of these nonpermanent employees.
According to the BPK report, hundreds of contract teachers in the capital were allegedly hired by the principals of their respective state schools without any recommendation from the Jakarta education agency, as required by existing regulations.
The Jakarta administration then decided to cut them off as the new school year started in the middle of July, but without proper notification beforehand – preventing the affected teachers from seeking another job before the holiday ended.
Following a widespread backlash over the sudden dismissal, acting Jakarta governor Heru Budi Hartono assured that the 107 teachers were not laid-off, but would instead be reassigned to other schools lacking manpower.
"We will gather their data and redistribute them to schools that need their expertise," Heru said on Saturday, as quoted by Kompas.com.
On Sunday he held a closed-door meeting with around 2,000 state school principals at the Jakarta International Velodrome to discuss issues surrounding teacher recruitment.
To this end, his administration has come up with several initiatives geared to ensure that nonpermanent teachers in Jakarta – who reach 4,000 in number and often suffer from low wages, a lack of career development and the inability to access welfare benefits – have more certainty going forward.
One of these initiatives is to provide the teachers with an account at the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry's data center (Dapodik), which is one of the prerequisites to be hired as state employees with employment agreements (PPPK), or another stream of the state civil apparatus (ASN) after civil servant (PNS).
"We told the principals that 4,000 nonpermanent teachers in Jakarta will be given recommendations to have a Dapodik [account]," Heru said as quoted by an official statement.
The administration will also open an Individual Employment Contract (KKI) recruitment program for 1,700 nonpermanent teachers in August. A further recruitment drive for KKI teachers will take place early next year.
The PPPK recruitment drive is funded by the central government, while the KKI is funded entirely by the Jakarta administration, and teachers without a Dapodik account can also apply.
"In 2025, the Jakarta administration will reopen recruitment for KKI teachers. So, the remaining 2,300 teachers [who are not recruited through the KKI route this year] can have another try. If the budget allows, [we] might even increase [the quota]," Heru stated.
The Jakarta's top official also said his ranks were currently improving their data collection system for the rearrangement of manpower, as some schools were severely understaffed while others had an abundance of teachers. "The school principals have agreed that, rather than recruiting more nonpermanent teachers, we will map out [the current arrangement] to address the shortage issue, including by taking into account the 4,000 existing contract teachers."
Cautious optimism
Iman Zanatul Haeri of the Association for Education and Teachers (P2G) welcomed Heru's initiatives, saying that getting access to Dapodik accounts and having the opportunity to join the KKI recruitment had been among the group's longest-running demands.
However, he urged the Jakarta administration to keep its promises, as nonpermanent teachers had previously struggled to secure PPPK or KKI spots, either due to overcrowding or nontransparent recruiting processes.
Iman further highlighted that nonpermanent teachers, particularly those who had been laid off, needed urgent solutions to immediately go back into teaching to make ends meet.
"If they go on for too long without [teaching], they will have no other choice but to find another source of living," Iman said. "They don't need to be placed in their former schools. They just need to be placed urgently, in line with Heru's promise".
Heru also stressed the need for the Jakarta administration to issue a gubernatorial regulation banning schools from recruiting nonpermanent teachers. This is in line with Law No. 20/2023 on ASN, which regulates the elimination of nonpermanent employees by December this year, as reported by Tempo.