Decentralization Impacts on
The Educational System in
Indonesia
Bambang Hermanto
After Reform, Indonesia has created a decentralized
educational system.
Local government authority has increased in
Education (Ryaas Rasyid, 2003).
Some research has shown that education has
improved because local governments are
responding more through educational budget (R.R. Simatupang, 2009).
This article concerns how the decentralized system
has effected educational quality, especially how the budget on educational expenditure influence the
educational quality.
There are inconsistency policies in the
education system in Indonesia (Raihani, 2011)
The lack of guidelines from the central
government has exacerbated educational uncertainty (Ryaas Rasyid, 2003)
Is the Indonesia education getting better or
even worse after decentralization??
The main data source of this research is
government data particularly data from Central National Statistic Board
The data were compared by the official
measurement by the Ministry of Education and Culture toward educational quality.
One of the basic indicator of educational
quality is the participation index on the elementary to the university level.
The elementary level remain steady
The middle level education which is the
local government authority has been increased gradually
The Universities level tends to be
fluctuating
1994 1998
Participation Index for elementery level
Participation Index for junior high school level Participation Index forsenior high school level Participation Index for universities
Figure 1. Indonesia`s participation Index 1994-2014
Source: national statistic Board 2015
Local government Budget on
Percentage of Educational Budget Among The Provinces
From 34 provinces throughout Indonesia, no
one has put 20 percents of its education
budget in the Local Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD), even the Education Act has
mandated that education budget not less than 20%.
The highest percentage budget on education
is DKI Jakarta (18,4%) and the lowest is Papua (1%).
Average budget percentages on educational
expenditure in Indonesia is around 2-6%.
Yogyakarta DKI. Jakarta Bali Jawa Timur Jawa Tengah Jawa Barat Riau IslandWest Sumatera Papua Banten
Top 10 Provinces With the Competency Test Results By The Ministry of Education and Culture on 2012
the first top 10 provinces in educational
quality is Yogyakarta which only has spent its budget 8 % to the educational
expenditure.
Moreover, Bali the province with only 4 %
for educational spending, it took the third position in the chart.
In contrast, Aceh and south Borneo, which
spent more than 8 % of their budget, did not hit the top 10 list.
After the implementation of decentralization
era, every province has more responsible about the quality of education.
The local government has provided budgets
on education but it is not influence to the quality itself, because there are some
provinces with the lower budget indicated the better quality.
Rentanida Renata Simatupang, Georgia
State University, Economics Dissertations Department of Economics, 2009
Ryaas Rasyid, (ed.) Local Power and Politics
in Indonesia, ed. By Edward Aspinall and Greg Fealy. Singapore: ISEAS, 2003
