The National Education Ministry has taken up the challenge to improve the education levels at tertiary institutions, and by 2015 is aiming to see all lecturers with master's degrees as a minimum.
Fasli Jalal, the ministry's director general for higher education, on Thursday said the government would provide large opportunities for lecturers with bachelor's degrees to undertake further studies.
The move is in line with the 2005 Law on Teachers and Lecturers, which stipulates that by 2015 all university lecturers must have master's degrees, Fasli said.
At present 54,250 of the 155,000 lecturers across Indonesia hold only bachelor's degrees.
"This year, the ministry has spent Rp 500 trillion (US$53 billion) to send 1,800 teachers, currently holding bachelor's degrees, to pursue master's degrees abroad," he said in Jakarta during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Asian Institute of Technology.
The ministry was targeting to spend Rp 600 trillion next year to send 2,000 more teachers to post-graduate courses overseas.
Opportunities for teachers to get scholarships were widely available from embassies and local universities, Fasli said.
The ministry encourages cooperation between local and foreign universities to produce quality lecturers, on the grounds that mutual efforts are in keeping with the 2009 Law on Education Institutions.
Article 12 of the law stipulates that any accredited or recognized foreign educational institution can establish an educational institution in Indonesia by working with local universities and schools.
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Gajah Mada University, for example, have been working together to provide education for civil servants of governmental institutions, such as the National Education Ministry and the Public Works Ministry, since 2006.
Thailand-based AIT is one of Asia's top postgraduate institutes for engineering, technology, management and sustainable development. It opened a center in Bandung, West Java, in 2006.
"Such cooperation is a good way to improve our lecturer's standards," he said.
Separately, education expert Arief Rachman told The Jakarta Post the government should map the distribution of teachers and their levels of education, in efforts to achieve this goal.
"The government should begin mapping now," Arief said, adding that this would help the government identify university lecturers who were not yet post-graduate degree holders.
"Regional mapping can help identify which areas need to be prioritized. Some areas may have only a few lecturers with Master's degrees, while others may have enough quality lecturers," he said.
The quality of lecturers at present is substandard, especially outside big cities, and many undergraduate students are taught by lecturers with only Bachelor's degrees, Arief said.
"This will not produce high-quality graduates.
"In many developed countries, doctors and professors teach undergraduate students. People with Master's degrees should teach at secondary and elementary schools," he said. (nia)
