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Critics want education stripped from jobs bill
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awmakers and academics have demanded that educational issues be scrapped from the omnibus bill on job creation, arguing that some provisions in the draft may end up being "counterproductive" to efforts to improve education in the country.
The bill, under discussion by the House of Representatives and the government, would amend a number of articles in Law No. 20/2003 on the national education system, Law No. 14/2005 on teachers and lecturers and Law No. 12/2012 on higher education.
A number of House legislators, especially those with close ties to Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), raised concerns about some articles they said would commercialize education and turn it into a business commodity.
For instance, they criticized a provision in the draft bill – a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post – that makes the principle of nonprofit management in higher education institutions an option instead of the obligation stipulated in the 2012 law.
House Legislation Body (Baleg) member Abdul Wahid of the National Awakening Party (PKB), which is regarded as the unofficial political wing of NU, criticized the revision, emphasizing that the country should be responsible for ensuring access to education.
"I'm afraid that this will endanger the nation. Don't commercialize education,” Abdul said during a hearing between Baleg and the government on Tuesday.
Hasani bin Zuber of the Democratic Party, a member of House Commission VIII overseeing social affairs, raised further concerns over an article in the bill requiring people to secure a business license from the central government to establish educational institutions, including pesantren (Islamic boarding schools).
The bill stipulates a fine of up to Rp 1 billion (US$66,834) for people who fail to obtain a license.
"I think we should review the revisions so they don’t become a problem in the future," said Hasani, who is also an NU activist.
Syaiful Huda, the chairman of House Commission X overseeing education and a PKB member, said the articles in the education cluster of the draft bill were “counterproductive to the philosophy and objectives of education in Indonesia”.
"This will have an impact on tradition-based educational institutions such as pesantren and will increase the cost of education," Syaiful said.
Indonesia is home to some 4,670 universities and other higher educational institutions, 122 of which are state-run universities while the rest are private institutions.
NU operates 257 of those higher-learning institutions, which are among the approximately 6,000 educational institutions – ranging from kindergartens to universities – run by the Islamic organization in the archipelago.
The group also runs more than 23,000 of the approximately 29,000 pesantren in Indonesia, according to NU data.
Lecturers and teachers have also voiced concerns about the revision.
Hariadi Kartodihardjo of the Board of Professors at Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in West Java highlighted the elimination of all requirements for foreign universities to operate in Indonesia.
The bill scraps, among other things, the requirement for foreign universities to be accredited and relaxes the obligation for them to cooperate with domestic higher-learning institutions.
Hariadi argued that facilitating investment in higher education without accreditation standards could reduce educational quality and that foreign universities should obtain accreditation in both their country and Indonesia.
“We don’t want Indonesia to have too many universities that don’t necessarily benefit the nation," he said.
"Many other countries, for example, Japan, have succeeded in increasing global competitiveness not by opening investment for foreign universities but by focusing on increasing the capacity of their universities to conduct research and development, including cooperation with businesses."
The Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) argued that the bill would lead to discrimination against teachers who graduated from domestic universities.
The bill stipulates that teachers or lecturers with a bachelor's degree from an accredited foreign university would no longer be required to have an educator certificate, while those who obtained their bachelor's degree from a domestic university would still be required to have one.
PGRI chairwoman Unifah Rosyidi called on the House to drop the education cluster from the bill, which generally aims to ease business licensing and attract investment.
“The PGRI demands that the House and the government exclude the education cluster from the bill, and they could make a separate omnibus bill,” she said, questioning the need for the issues to be included in the bill.
Elen Setiadi, an expert staff member at the Coordinating Economic Ministry, said during Tuesday's hearing that Indonesia had to catch up in science and innovation, so some relaxations on regulations related to education were necessary.
“Science and innovation development requires a large investment," Elen said. "The state is still responsible for the educational system without being profit-oriented.”
