Ministry prepares teacher redistribution to address 498,000 shortage

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education said it is preparing a national mapping for the redistribution of teachers to address a shortage of 498 thousand teaching positions.

The ministry's Director General of Teachers and Education Personnel, Nunuk Suryani, said that currently there are schools with an excess number of teachers, while many other schools are experiencing teacher shortages.

"The first step being taken, following the directive from the Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform during the earlier limited meeting, is redistribution. Based on our data, we need 498,000 teachers. However, this must first be redistributed," Suryani said here on Tuesday.

Therefore, the ministry is currently preparing a mapping for teacher redistribution to reorganize the distribution of teachers evenly before opening recruitment to absorb non-civil servant (non-ASN) teachers who have been recorded in the Education Fundamental Data (Dapodik) system as of December 31, 2024.

After completing the redistribution mapping, she said the ministry will then determine the number of required teacher formations.

"We are currently finalizing the formulation of teacher needs for this year. The Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, Rini Widyantini, has stated that there will be recruitment or formation, but the exact number has not yet been determined," Suryani said.

Regarding the selection for non-ASN teachers, she said the ministry is preparing a fair selection process to provide legal certainty and career pathways for 237,196 teachers who receive honorarium or non-civil servant teachers registered in the Dapodik system as of December 31, 2024.

She said her side, together with relevant ministries and agencies, has discussed the selection mechanism for hundreds of thousands of non-ASN teachers already registered in the Dapodik system, as the promotion of non-ASN teachers is handled by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform.