Resources on Indonesia: Articles and Reports

"This education profile describes recent trends in Indonesian education and student mobility and provides an overview of the structure of the education system of Indonesia."

A 268-page report.

Indonesia’s biggest challenge regarding education is no longer improving access but improving quality. The Indonesian Government hopes to develop a ‘world-class’ education system by 2025. However, numerous assessments of the country’s education performance suggest that it has a long way to go before it will achieve that goal...This Analysis explores the reasons behind these problems and the implications for Australian education providers.

"Having made impressive progress in widening access to basic education, Indonesia must now consolidate these gains and develop an education system to support the needs of the economy in its transition towards high-income status. This report highlights three main policy directions which, pursued together, would help Indonesia advance on the path towards stronger growth and more inclusive and sustainable development. The first priority is to raise the quality of education and ensure that all learners acquire the skills they need to succeed in life and work. The second goal is to widen participation, requiring a concerted effort to improve access for disadvantaged groups and expand provision beyond the basic level. The final challenge is to increase efficiency, with a more data‑driven approach to resource allocation, better tailoring of provision to local needs, and stronger performance management."

"This is a best prospect industry sector for this country. Includes a market overview and trade data."

"Decentralization is acknowledged as the handover of government from central government to local government, including giving broader authority to local governments to manage education. This study aims to discovering education development gap between regions in Indonesia as a result of decentralization."

Based on survey data, this report covers Javanese family arrangements, status of women, value of children, marital relationships, social network and family support system, and teaching of their value system.

"Indonesian family systems do not conform to the prevailing image of Asian families, the predominant arrangements being nuclear and bilateral, with an important matrilineal minority. This paper considers the strength of family ties in two communities, focusing particularly on inter-generational flows of support to and from older members... Several sources of variation in family ties are detailed, particularly the heterogeneity of support flows – balanced, upward, and downward – that co-exist in both communities."

This study explored the "factors that motivate parents from different socioeconomic status and educational levels to be involved in their children’s education in Java, Indonesia. We further explored how parents were involved and what challenges they faced in their involvement. We found differences in parents’ expectations and aspirations for their children’s education and in their perceptions of their obligations and responsibilities regarding their children’s education. These differences were related to parents’ socioeconomic background and also to the urban and rural community contexts. Although all parents felt welcome at school, some highly educated parents reported lack of power and lack of opportunity for active parental involvement at the school. As is typical for a collectivist culture such as the Indonesian society, this study points to the shared responsibility of some Indonesian parents for the education of children other than their own in the local community."

The typical Indonesian family now has fewer than three children.

"BKKBN, Indonesia’s national family planning agency, has adopted a program...that has boosted the use of modern contraception in several regions of the country and is now scaling it up nationwide...Indonesia was known as a success in family planning circles until the use of modern contraception stagnated in the country in the late 1990s. Currently, modern contraception use is significantly lower in Indonesia than in many other Asian countries. Family planning decisions, once made at the national government level, have been decentralized and the power over policies and resources now rests in 535 district governments across the country."

"In many nations, parents exhibit a variety of behaviors that favor sons over daughters. In this paper we provide evidence suggesting that in Indonesia there is no problem of “missing daughters” and that patterns of births, birth spacing and nutrition allocations do not suggest son preference during the cohorts born from 1940’s to the 1990’s. In contrast, gender differences in educational attainment and inheritance were quite prevalent in the recent past. These gaps have narrowed for secondary education and inheritance, and disappeared for primary education."

A description of an intercultural marriage in Indonesia.

"The constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the right to worship according to one’s own beliefs but states citizens must accept restrictions established by law to protect the rights of others and, as noted in the constitution, to satisfy “just demands based upon considerations of morality, religious values, security, and public order in a democratic society.” "The U.S.-Indonesia Council on Religion and Pluralism – endorsed by both governments and comprising religious and civil society leaders, academics, and experts from both countries – met with the Ambassador to discuss religious freedom issues. The embassy and consulates conducted extensive outreach to promote the message of respect for diversity and religious tolerance through events, media interviews, social media initiatives, digital and public speaking engagements, youth exchanges, and educational programs."

"This paper describes the diversity of Indonesia and the history of Indonesia, including its experience with Dutch
colonialism, the Japanese occupation and the struggle for independence. It compares the administrations of Presidents Sukarno and Suharto. It provides a brief survey of economic development and of education in Indonesia. It describes unique features of religion in Indonesia, especially Islam, and Indonesia's commitment to religious pluralism and toleration. Finally, the paper discusses the role of women in Indonesia."

Link to Indonesia chapter of their annual report and press releases on blasphemy laws.

"Religious freedom does not exist in Indonesia. This may seem to be a harsh assessment of the world’s third most populous democracy and reputably one of the most tolerant Muslim nations. After all, Indonesia’s 1945 constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Religious freedom, however, is a promise that has not been fulfilled by the state. The absence of religious freedom stems from the fact that the Indonesian state, like other secular powers, imposes on society its definition of what religion is, what counts as religion. The state recognizes only six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Furthermore, each religion has its own appointed national council that has been authorized to define what is considered orthodox beliefs and practices. Deviations from these central tenets will be punished under article 156a of the Indonesian criminal code, also known as the blasphemy law. Offenders can be imprisoned for up to five years."

"Though mostly populated by Muslims, Indonesia was founded in 1945 based on a secular-oriented ideology, Pancasila, that remains today as an ideological pillar of the nation. It embraces a neutral position about Indonesian citizens’ faith and declines to endow a single majority religion, namely Islam, with a formal dominant status. But while Indonesian politics formally embraces a model of separation of religion and state, it actually places common religious/spiritual values at the centre of nationhood, as epitomised by the first
principle of Pancasila: “Belief in the One and Only God.”

"The election results show a hardening of voting patterns along religious, ethnic, and geographic lines, a troubling development for a multiracial and religiously diverse Indonesia."

"The landscape of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Indonesia has been shaped by two elements: first, the progressive adoption of human rights in the new laws and amended constitution, as a result of the democratization which started in 1998; second, the old governance of religion which acknowledges limited religious pluralism and emphasizes harmony over freedom. A striking feature resulting from this combination is the addition of “religious values” as a ground of FoRB limitation in the new chapter on human rights in the amended Constitution, which otherwise draws its inspiration from the ICCPR and other international human rights covenants. Indonesian “public order” and “public morals” are understood to consist of, among other things, respect and protection of religious values. While the emphasis on religious values and public order produces most restrictions, when it comes to limitations to FoRB on grounds of public health, the government seems reluctant to impose necessary restrictions."

"In March, 15 Indonesians filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court arguing that the government’s shuttering of thousands of houses of worship was being done under a discriminatory law and therefore should not be allowed to happen."