Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Lestari Moerdijat stated that support to realize an adequate work environment for teachers must be continuously increased to create quality teachers and equitable distribution of teachers.
"The threat of a crisis in the number of teachers must be anticipated with concrete and prompt steps so that the education process can run sustainably and be of quality," she said in a written statement received here on Sunday.
She noted that based on Data Educational International, there has been a crisis in the number of teachers because the interest of the younger generation in becoming teachers in several countries in the world is low.
The shortage reached 44 million teachers worldwide, while in Asia there is a shortage of 4 million teachers. Based on data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, in the period of 2022-2023, Indonesia had 3.3 million teachers in public schools.
However, in 2024, Indonesia is predicted to have a 1.3 million shortage of teachers due to the high number of teachers who will retire. She noted that if the condition is followed by the younger generation's low interest in becoming teachers, it will cause a shortage of teachers.
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Moerdijat assessed that the threat of teacher shortages must be anticipated by the central and regional governments with appropriate measures. In this regard, she called for the involvement of all parties to invest in the education sector to meet the needs of teachers and improve the professionalism of teachers in the country.
She assessed that efforts to increase the number and quality of teachers must be understood as an investment which is part of the process of building strong and competitive human resources. The MPR deputy speaker expressed hope that the central and regional governments can take the appropriate strategy to anticipate the risk of shortage in the number of teachers so that the quality of learning in the country can continue to be improved.
