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ducation experts called on the Culture and Education Ministry to create various sets of minimum service standards for elementary and junior high schools based on their region'€™s needs and culture.

The Education Sector Analytical and Capacity Development Partnership'€™s (ACDP) lead advisor on skills development, higher education and education governance, Abdul Malik, said that it was high time the ministry diversified the 27 minimum service standards first established in a 2010 ministerial regulation.

'€œWe have to first ask: what are the minimum service standards for? The standards only really apply to around 90 percent of schools [nationwide]. Ten percent is a significant number and cannot be ignored and they must have their own standards. This encompasses most schools in remote areas,'€ he said on Wednesday.

The 27 minimum service standards, which were improved in Ministerial Regulation No. 23/2013, stipulates the provision of books, science labs and suitably qualified teachers for all students.

According to a survey by the EU titled the '€œ2014 Status Quo Assessment'€, only 26 percent of elementary schools and Islamic elementary schools out 12,980 schools in 110 regencies and municipalities fulfilled the minimum service standards.

Malik said that due to the country'€™s diverse cultural background, it only made sense that the children in each region had different educational needs that the ministry should proactively try to adapt to.

'€œFor example, in remote areas such as Papua they could offer multi-subject teaching in which a school only has one teacher who is paid more because they teach different subjects or levels. [The minimum service standards] should also address one-roof schools where children from different levels all learn under one roof because of the remote location,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, John Strain, who is part of the EU and the Asia Development Bank'€™s (ADB) program to improve minimum service standards in Indonesia, said that regencies, municipalities and schools were overly focused on the indicators that required funds, such as infrastructure and facilities.

'€œThere are indicators in the minimum service standards that do not need funds. Eleven of them do not need money,'€ he said.

The indicators include points such as a compulsory inspection by the province'€™s education agency every three months and the development of high-quality syllabuses based on the national curriculum by schools.

Strain also emphasized the importance of the role of parents in monitoring and assisting their children'€™s schools to fulfill and surpass the minimum service standards.

'€œFor example, one of the indicators is that the schools must provide a school report to their students'€™ parents. Parents can demand such a thing if it is not provided as it is their right,'€ he said.

Separately, the ministry'€™s head of the policy research center under the research and development unit, Hendarman, agreed that the minimum service standards should be diversified as soon as possible to meet President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s goals of a 12-year compulsory education.

However, he said that much of the ministry'€™s research into the minimum service standards had stalled due to incomplete data provided by regency and municipal administrations.

'€œWe have to encourage regencies and municipalities to work together [to improve the minimum service standards] because they are the ones that have the data. However, the question is whether they know what to do with that [data]? Oftentimes it is difficult to trace which [minimum service standard] indicators the [administration'€™s] education funds go to,'€ he said.