TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo plans to resolve issues on the status of honorary teachers and educational infrastructures within three years. Jokowi even promised to coordinate with the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister and regional heads to improve honorary teachers' status to become civil servants.
"The President also promised to resolve the issue on damaged school buildings," Chairman of the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) Sulistyo said after meeting Jokowi in the Presidential Palace on Monday, April 6, 2015.
However, Sulistyo said that the government is yet to have a detailed work plan on what needs to be done to improve honorary teachers’ welfare issues set in Articles 14 and 15 of Law No. 14/2005 on Teachers and Lecturers.
Article 14 (1) point (a) states that teachers are entitled to earn a salary above the minimum wage and are subject to social security program. However, the fact is more than 6,000 honorary teachers were paid below the minimum wage.
PGRI also demanded the government to accelerate the teacher certification process, which will reach its deadline on 2015.
