Indonesian Higher Education 113
for decomposing estimations coefficients from a logit or probit model
which is used to model binary outcome. According to Fairlie (2005), the
traditional Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition (Blinder 1973; Oaxaca 1973)
technique cannot directly quantify a model which has binary outcomes
and its results are also difficult to interpret in terms of probability.
This chapter proceeds in the following direction. In the next section,
I present some background on the Indonesia formal school system and
higher education participation. The third section sets a model and empirical
strategy. The fourth section presents details of the sample taken from the
Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS). In the fifth section, I present the
empirical result and interpret several empirical analyses, while the sixth
and final section summarizes and concludes the discussion.
2. FORMAL SCHOOL SYSTEM AND INDONESIAN
HIGHER EDUCATION
2.1 Formal School System
The formal school system in Indonesia is structured on three-tiers which
include basic education followed by secondary education and higher
education. Basic education consists of six years of primary school and three
years of junior or lower secondary school. Secondary education consists
of general upper secondary education and vocational upper secondary
education, while higher education as the post-secondary level of education
includes diploma, bachelor, master, specialized, and doctoral degrees.
The institutions which provide higher education include academies,
polytechnics, colleges, institutes and universities.
Based on sources of funding, schools in Indonesia are distinguished
as either public or private schools. According to Oey-Gardiner (1997),
many private schools are funded by the government in many financial
forms and thus have to follow the government’s set of rules, regulations
and standards. Most public schools are non-religious schools, whereas
many private schools are religious Islamic or Christian schools. Primary
education is dominated by public schools. On the other hand, the private
sector plays a larger role starting from junior secondary to the higher
levels of education.
It is widely acknowledged that private schools provide places for
students who cannot meet the public school entry test requirements and/or