The Political Economy of Teacher Management in Decentralized Indonesia

Andrew Rosser (andrew.rosser@unimelb.edu.au) and Mohamad Fahmi (mfahmi@fe.unpad.ac.id)
Additional contact information
Andrew Rosser: University of Adelaide
Mohamad Fahmi: Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University

No 201602, Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) from Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University

Abstract: Indonesia faces serious challenges in the number, cost, quality, and distribution of teachers. This paper examines the role of political economy factors in producing these challenges and shaping eforts to resolve them. It argues that the challenges have their origins in the way in which political and bureaucratic elites have for decades used the school system to accumulate resources, distribute patronage, mobilize political support, and exercise political control. This orientation has meant that teacher numbers, quality, and distribution have been managed to maximize fows of rents and votes from schools to the elite, lubricate patronage and political networks, and ensure that elites maintain politi- cal control rather than maximize educational performance and equity. The fall of the New Order, the authoritarian and centralized regime that ruled Indonesia from 1965 to 1998, led to eforts to change this situation, but these have had little impact so far. The paper concludes by assessing what can be done by proponents of teacher management reform in this context to promote better outcomes.

Keywords: political economy; education; teachers; teacher management; Indonesia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D73 H75 I28 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2016-12, Revised 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol, nep-sea and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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