Shortage of 498,000 teachers in Indonesia next year?

[Balifrog]

Throwing a wrench in the gears here, but several Middle East, Muslim countries have a high level of education.
Jordan, Iran and till some time ago Lebanon..

Ever tried a business negociation with a Lebanese guy ?
I have seen a money discussion between a Lebanese and a Vietnamese.... They simply hated each other ! It was all about who is going to screw the other party....

 

[jstar]

Some yes. Mainly the ones that are or very rich or focused on western countries. Like parts of Jordan and the capital. Iran was before the Islamic revolution very liberal. And Lebanon was never a real Muslim country, the business partners we had there were all Christian.

 

[Pak Tani]

In Indonesian public schools there is almost no time spent on learning Arabic. It's the Pondok Pesantren where people go to learn about Islam besides the complete or partial national curriculum. Approximately 15% of school children go to these types of schools. Yes, they spend time there to learn Arabic, maybe even 20% of their time, who knows.
Back home there are schools that teach classical languages, Latin and ancient Greek. Students spend up to 3 + 3 hours per week on these subjects. The ROI is not easy to measure on the resources invested in these subjects. Yet nobody calls these students 'handicapped' for 'wasting time' on learning languages nobody speaks anymore.
There is a lot of room for improvement in the Indonesian educational system to create a better educated generation, everyone agrees. But if one thinks the solution is closing all pondok pesantrens and to stop teaching Arabic, he doesn't understand a part of Indonesian society.

 

[Helpful Herbert]

We all understand Indonesian society and why it's impossible to close these schools. It is also a major reason why the country is so uneducated and will never escape being a poor country. Both things can be true.

 

[Hawk256]

We all understand Indonesian society and why it's impossible to close these schools. It is also a major reason why the country is so uneducated and will never escape being a poor country. Both things can be true.

Not really sure why you chose the be here. You seem to dislike most everything about the country. You knew this was the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, right? Do you have anything positive to say about Indonesia?

 

[jstar]

In Indonesian public schools there is almost no time spent on learning Arabic. It's the Pondok Pesantren where people go to learn about Islam besides the complete or partial national curriculum.

No, that’s somewhat of a misunderstanding; a pesantran is a (religious) boarding school. But there are also so called madrasahs which as day schools can be state-run (Madrasah Negeri) or private (Madrasah Swasta). Mostly the latter, and there are approx. 84.000 of these schools. They’re not managed by the ministry of education but -as one could expect- under control of the ministry of religion. So where would the focus be then? A conservative estimate is that 30% of their time, the kid’s education is religion related. Whether that’s a lot or not, I leave up to you to judge.
.

 

[Wisnu]

In Indonesian public schools there is almost no time spent on learning Arabic. It's the Pondok Pesantren where people go to learn about Islam besides the complete or partial national curriculum. Approximately 15% of school children go to these types of schools. Yes, they spend time there to learn Arabic, maybe even 20% of their time, who knows.
Back home there are schools that teach classical languages, Latin and ancient Greek. Students spend up to 3 + 3 hours per week on these subjects. The ROI is not easy to measure on the resources invested in these subjects. Yet nobody calls these students 'handicapped' for 'wasting time' on learning languages nobody speaks anymore.
There is a lot of room for improvement in the Indonesian educational system to create a better educated generation, everyone agrees. But if one thinks the solution is closing all pondok pesantrens and to stop teaching Arabic, he doesn't understand a part of Indonesian society.

That was my personal experience in elementary, middle, and high school in Indonesia 4-5 decades ago, and also my children when we were still living in Indonesia; never studied Arabic. Indeed, we learned to read the Quran as part of Islamic religious studies, it was only 2 hours every week. Nowadays I believe it's not much different. I don't know much about the curriculum in Islamic boarding schools and madrasah, but @Pak Tani 's explanation seems very reasonable. What I know in Egypt (6 years living there) there are around 3000 Indonesian students and around 5000 Malaysian students studying at Al Azhar University in Cairo. I know about 30 of them personally because I often play badminton together. Most of them come from Islamic boarding schools and madrasah from various regions in Indonesia. They seem intelligent, of course fluent in Arabic and quite good in English. I don't know whether they later will live decent or not, but quite a few important figures in this country are graduates of Islamic boarding schools, including Gus Dur, Mahmud MD, and Nurcholis Majid. I've been fortunate enough to meet Nurcholis Majid several times and have great respect for his intellect. I also know a number scientists with doctoral degrees abroad who have completed the Quran and are fluent in Arabic and other languages. What I want to say here is that many people who take the time to study the Quran and Arabic are not stupid at all, in fact, many of them are far smarter and more successful than me, who is pathetic in the Quran and only speak shukran despite living in an Arabic-speaking country for 6 years.
I do agree there's big gap and various issues in education in Indonesia that requires improvement regardless teaching Arabic or not. Many students in remote schools, especially in eastern Indonesia, are in a very sad situation.