sisting of mathematics, general science, Bahasa Indonesian, history and physical education. Depending on the school, religious studies and foreign language studies— most commonly English and Mandarin— may also be included.
After the nine years of mandatory education, students are required to choose a specialized area of study when they reach Senior Secondary school. Students can choose to focus on Science( IPA), Social and Economic Studies( IPS) or Language and Literature Studies( which is not commonly offered). Whichever field students choose, the national examinations for that respective field are taken accordingly. There are no standardized examinations such as the SAT and ACT in Indonesia; students qualify for higher education when they pass their national examinations. However, in order for students to qualify for higher education overseas, students are required to spend an additional year in college to fulfil the typical thirteen years of schooling found in America and most other countries
Similar to American students, Indonesian students have the options of attending either private or public schools. Some private schools offer an international curriculum such as GCSE( UK’ s educational qualification) instead of the Indonesian curriculum.
Private schools in Indonesia are often more affiliated with a religion— commonly with Christianity or Buddhism— compared to public schools because it is more difficult to include religious courses in public schools. Even so, there are still a great number of religious public schools because education in Indonesia falls under the responsibility of both the Ministry of National Education( MoNE) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs( MoRA). 84 % of schools are under MoNE while the remainder 16 % is under MoRA. Furthermore, private schools are surprisingly prevalent in Indonesia; although only 7 % of Primary schools are private, 56 % of Junior Secondary schools and 67 % 2 of Senior Secondary schools are private.
Even though fees for private and public schools vary greatly, the average Primary school fees in 2011 were equivalent to $ 25 USD to $ 36 USD, while Junior Secondary school fees were $ 54 USD to $ 72 USD, and $ 180 to $ 360 USD for Senior Secondary school. Considering that the average annual income per capita in Indonesia is approximately $ 3,000 and 14.2 % of the population( as of 2009) are below the poverty line, earning less than $ 2.60 a day, education is expensive— especially higher education. University fees in Indonesia could range from $ 274 to $ 1,296 USD and unfortunately, many universities do not offer financial aid.
There have been signs of gradual progress to make education more accessible. In 2007, the Indonesian government invested 16 % of its public expenditure, which is equivalent to $ 14 billion USD, on the education sector— the most spent on any sector on that year. Previously, in 2005, the government launched the program known as School Operations Fund( BOS: Biaya Operasional Sekolah), with the goal of retaining more students in the education system and allow the schools to have greater flexibility with their funds.
The implementation of this program has increased school enrollment; the number of students enrolled in Secondary school in 1985 was 13 million and had increased to 14.5 million in 2000 and 16 million in 2005. This progress provides hope for a brighter future for the children in Indonesia
... only around 18 % of Indonesian students having ever repeated a grade...
34 | ZEALOUSNESS MAGAZINE | Winter / Spring 2017