“I chose to stay and work as a teacher for 24 years because that was my calling. I used to work for insurance and consultant companies, but I found my passion in teaching,” Ahmad Saifudin, or Pak Udin, told The Jakarta Post.

Udin, who is also an activist with the Indonesian Nonpermanent State Employees Association (PHK2I), said life as a nonpermanent worker had never been easy, because he earned only Rp 1.6 million (US$117.57) per month in salary.

“I used to receive Rp 10,000 per month in salary in 1996. Then I got a raise to Rp 100,000 per month and then another raise to Rp 600,000 per month a few years later. [...] I am quite lucky though. I have a toko kelontong [small grocery shop] in front of my house. I have a car rental business and my wife is a civil servant. If I only relied on my salary, I wouldn’t be able to send my two children to state universities,” he added.

Udin said he was also in debt and had to pay the bank Rp 3 million to Rp 4 million per month, exceeding his salary. When asked why he wouldn’t register for the civil service test he said he had failed several times.

“I think the test system in the years before 2014 was messed up. No passing grade was revealed, and I never got to know my test score. I was just declared to have failed. Now the test is much better, but I’ve passed the age limit,” he said, referring to the maximum age of 35 for civil servant applicants.

Udin is one among more than 937,000 nonpermanent teachers according to the latest data from Education and Culture Ministry.

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