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Future proofing our education with the new bill
Teachers were unprepared and poorly supported during the pandemic, thus affecting their physical and mental health as well as their ability to cope with various distance-learning challenges.
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Class of their own: An elementary-school student (left) and her elder brother attend classes online from their home in Banda Aceh on Feb. 15. The local government suspended in-class learning due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. (Antara/Irwansyah Putra)
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t has been a couple of months since the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry started an internal discussion on the revision of the National Education System Law No. 20/2003 to make it more relevant.
The 19-year-old law is considered no longer able to accommodate the dynamic changes in the country’s educational trajectory and priorities, especially now that COVID-19 has altered our perspective on education.
Given the importance of the bill and how vital its role in governing Indonesia’s education system, stakeholders are keeping a close eye on its progress. However, the draft bill has not been made public so far and was only made available to a select group of people and organizations who had participated in the draft bill's internal discussion.
The lack of transparency has only fueled public suspicion and discouraged any productive discourse, leading to numerous arguments and counterarguments between the ministry and educational organizations in the media, which hardly contribute to a constructive public discussion. Despite growing public pressure to get the draft published, the ministry maintains that the draft bill is still "in the planning stage".
As in the drafting of the controversial job creation bill, the government and the House of Representatives have stated the new national education system legislation will integrate and harmonize all education-related regulations, which include Teachers’ Law No. 14/2005, Higher Education Law No. 12/2012 and the 2003 National Education System Law.
Chairman of the Indonesian Teachers’ Association (PGRI), however, said there were actually around 23 education-related laws that needed to be synchronized under the new legislation.
While the draft bill covers many important issues, two teachers’ organizations involved in the internal discussion with the Education Ministry pointed out that the draft has yet to include the most important element, namely a provision on the building of a resilient Indonesian education system. The groups believe such issue is critical to mitigate the shock of future events that may disrupt learning activities, as in the case of COVID-19 pandemic.
