TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo instructed a readjustment for the placement of civil servants, such as the placement of teachers. “We focus on the problem of teacher's placement. Many teachers are concentrated in cities,” said the Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform, Asman Abnur, on Wednesday, January 18, 2017.

According to Asman, teachers tend to stay at their placement regions in a short period of time. After three months, they would find ways to be placed in cities. This affects the availability of teachers in rural and border areas.

Official relocation for teachers will be even more stringent in the future. Regional governments will no longer have the sole authority to relocate teachers but the Education and Culture Ministry will also be involved.

Other plans are to station teachers in border areas. This way, it will be much more difficult to find a way to move to major cities. “It will be included in the civil servant's acceptance [forms], they would be made aware that they will be stationed at border areas,” Asman said.

Asked upon the realization of the plan, Asman said that he will start the process by mapping the regions that have an overflow of teachers against regions that lack a sufficient number of teachers. It can be revealed through staff expenditure reports. Followed by determining the prioritized locations that would need the newly available teachers.

“The Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform is tasked to take on this job,” he said.

ISTMAN M.P.