the country should be based on religion or should be secular. Likewise, there
was rigorous debate over the place of religious education in Indonesia. To
satisfy the education demands of all major groups, the country established
two parallel structures of education management: the Ministry of Education
and the Ministry of Religion. The Ministry of Religion is responsible for religious
educational institutions and religious education in non-religious schools
(Zuhdi, 2005). The Ministry of Education, today known as the Ministry of
Education and Culture, is responsible for non-religious education institutions
and all other aspects of national education.
During the past 70 years of independence, Indonesia has established three
education laws. The first, Law 4/1950 on Education and Teaching, was
promulgated in 1950; the second, the National Education System Law, was
published in 1989; while the third, Law 20/2003 on the National Educational
System, was promulgated in 2003. The three main components of education
covered by these laws are access, quality and religious education.
The right to education, and equality in access to education, is mandated
by Article 28C of the constitution, ‘Every citizen has the right to education’
(Republic of Indonesia, 2002). Accordingly, the nation’s education laws
emphasize the importance of access to education for every Indonesian
citizen. Efforts to increase access to education began during the New Order
government with the construction of 148,119 new primary schools, 5,204 new
lower secondary schools, and 1,370 new high schools throughout the country
(Djojonegoro, 1997).^12 Subsequently, the government implemented the
six-year Compulsory Education Policy in 1984 and the nine-year Compulsory
Education Policy in 1990 (Djojonegoro, 1997). As a consequence of these
policies, school participation rates, especially at primary school level, rose
steadily and have remained high since 1994. The school participation rate for
primary schools was 92.11 per cent in 1994 and 92.43 per cent in 2012 (BPS,
2014a). Likewise, the rate for secondary schools rose from 50.03 per cent in
1994 to 70.73 per cent in 2012 (BPS, 2014a). These figures indicate that the
vast majority of school-aged children are able to access formal education.
Under current policy, district governments are responsible for the
management and assessment of state-funded general schools (Republic
of Indonesia, 2005). Private schools, most of which receive a subsidy from
12 These numbers do not include private schools and religious schools (such as madrasah).