Free basic education strategy development volume 6: Human resource and institutional capacity development strategy to support implementation of free basic education report

This paper forms a part of the work of ACDP 006 project on Free Basic Education Strategy Development. The objective of the project is to develop a comprehensive strategy for the implementation of Free Basic Education (FBE) in Indonesia, covering policy, funding, accountability framework, capacity development and system requirements. The Indonesian formal basic education system comprises primary education of six years' duration and junior secondary education of three years. The teaching is delivered in schools, both government and private which are overseen by the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) and in madrasahs overseen by the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA). Both the schools and madrasahs are required to teach a mandated national curriculum, with the madrasahs also required to provide additional Islamic instruction. The main thrust of the legislative framework stresses the compulsory nature of basic education and government's responsibility for providing it. The standard to which basic education should be funded by government is the National Education Standard (NES), but this standard is set at a very high level, well beyond the government's current funding capacity. The MSS is intended to act as an interim milestone on the way to the NES. The legislative framework makes clear the government's obligation to fund basic education in the government system, but it does not show clearly to what extent the government is obliged to fund basic education in private schools/madrasahs.