Education in Indonesia

Education in Indonesia falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (''Kementerian Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset, dan Teknologi'' or ''Kemdikbudristek'') and the Ministry of Religious Affairs (''Kementerian Agama'' or ''Kemenag''). In Indonesia, all citizens must undertake twelve years of compulsory education which consists of six years at elementary level and three each at middle and high school levels. Islamic, Christian, Catholic, and Buddhist Schools are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Education is defined as a planned effort to establish a study environment and educational process so that the student may actively develop their own potential in religious and spiritual level, consciousness, personality, intelligence, behaviour and creativity to themselves, other citizens and the nation. The Constitution also notes that there are two types of education in Indonesia: formal and non-formal. Formal education is further divided into three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Schools in Indonesia are run either by the government (''negeri'') or private sectors (''swasta''). Some private schools refer to themselves as "national plus schools" which means that their curriculum exceeds requirements set by the Ministry of Education, especially with the use of English as medium of instruction or having an international-based curriculum instead of the national one. In Indonesia there are approximately 170,000 primary schools, 40,000 junior-secondary schools and 26,000 high schools. 84 percent of these schools are under the Ministry of Education and Culture and the remaining 16 percent under the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

History

Era of Islamic states

The emergence of Islamic state in Indonesia is noted by the acculturation of Islamic and Hindu-Buddhist traditions. At this time, ''pondok pesantren'', a type of Islamic boarding school was introduced and several of them were established. The location of pesantren is mostly faraway from the hustling crowd of the city, resembling the location of Karsyan.

Colonial era

Elementary education was introduced by the Dutch in Indonesia during the colonial era. The Dutch education system are query strings of educational branches that were based on social status of the colony's population, with the best available institution reserved for the European population.

In 1870, with the growth of Dutch Ethical Policy formulated by Conrad Theodor van Deventer, some of these Dutch-founded schools opened the doors for pribumi (lit. native Indonesians). They were called ''Sekolah Rakjat'' (lit. folk school), the embryo of what is called ''Sekolah Dasar'' (lit. elementary school) today. In 1871 the Dutch parliament adopted a new education law that sought to uniform the highly scattered and diversified indigenous education systems across the archipelago, and expand the number of teacher training schools under the supervision of the colonial administration. The budget for public schooling was raised in steps from ca. 300,000 guilders in 1864 to roughly 3 million guilders by the early 1890s. Most often, however, the education development were starved of funding, because many Dutch politicians feared expanding education would eventually lead to anti-colonial sentiment. Funding for education only counted for 6% of the total expenditure of the colonial budget in the 1920s. The number of government and private primary schools for natives had increased to 3,108 and the libraries to 3,000 by 1930. However, spending sharply declined after the economic depression in 1930.

The Dutch introduced a system of formal education for the local population of Indonesia, although this was restricted to certain privileged children. The schools for the European were modeled after the education system in Netherlands itself and required proficiency in Dutch. The Dutch language was also needed for higher education enrollment. The elite native/Chinese population who lack Dutch language skills could enroll in either Dutch Native or Chinese schools. The schools were arranged in the following levels:
*ELS (''Dutch: Europeesche Lagereschool'' lit. "European Low School") – primary school for Europeans
*HSS (''Dutch: Hollandsch-Schakelschool'' lit. "Dutch-Switch School")
*HIS (''Dutch: Hollandsch-Inlandscheschool'' lit. "Dutch-Native School") – primary school for natives
*HCS (''Dutch: Hollandsch-Chinescheschool'' lit. "Dutch-Chinese School") - primary school for Chinese
*MULO (''Dutch: Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs'' lit. "More Advanced Low Education") – middle school
*AMS (''Dutch: Algemene Middelbareschool'' lit. "General Middle School") – high school or college
*HBS (''Dutch: Hogere Burgerschool'' lit. "Higher Citizen School") – pre-university

For the population in rural areas, the Dutch created the ''Desa Schools'' or village schools system which aimed to spread literacy among the native population. These schools provide two or three years training of vernacular subjects (reading, writing, ciphering, hygiene, animals and plants, etc.) and served as cheaper alternative schools. These village schools, however, received much less funding than the privileged European schools, thus the quality of education provided is often lacking. Despite its flaws, the number of village schools reached 17,695 by 1930. The rest of the rural education were left to the work of Christian missionary, which are considered more cost-efficient.

The segregation between Dutch and Indonesian in education pushed several Indonesian figures to start educational institutions for local people. Arab Indonesians founded Jamiat Kheir in 1905, Ahmad Dahlan founded Muhammadiyah in November 1912, and Ki Hajar Dewantara founded Taman Siswa in July 1922 to emancipate the native population. Pesantrens (Islamic schools) were also mushrooming rapidly during this period.

During the colonial period there was a large gap between the educated male and female population. In 1920, on the island of Java and Madura out of the 6.5% literate male population, only 0.5% of the female native population are literate. Similar phenomenon can be observed on the 'Foreign Orientals' (Arabs and Chinese), with 26.5% literate male population and only 8.5% literate females out of the total population. In the outer islands beyond Java the difference between literate male and female population are 12% and 3% out of the population respectively. Inspired by a Javanese-born aristocrat Kartini who died young at the age of 25, the Van Deventer family worked to increase female involvement in education and received support from the Dutch government — eventually leading to foundation of Kartini Schools in 1911.

The Dutch colonial government established universities and colleges for native Indonesian on the island of Java. Before founding the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1920, there was no university-level education in the country; students had to go abroad (mainly to Netherlands) to receive it. Most of these universities have become the country's top educational institution as of today. These institutions are as follow:
*'' School tot Opleiding van Inlandsche Artsen'' or STOVIA, a medical university which later become ''Geneeskundige Hogeschool'' in Batavia.
*'' Nederland-Indische Artsen School'' or NIAS, a medical school in Soerabaja.
*''Rechts-Hoge-School'', a law school in Weltevreden, Batavia.
*'' De Technische Hoge-School'', or THS, a technic school in Bandoeng and the first full-fledged university in the country (opened in 1920).
*'' Middelbare Landbouw-school'', an agriculture college which later become ''Landbouwkundige Faculteit'' in Buitenzorg

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