Policy Research
Infrastructures play a crucial role in economic development and poverty reduction. The economic crisis in 1997-98 severely curtailed the government’s capacity to maintain the existing infrastructures, which could adversely affect the prospects for future economic development and poverty reduction in the country.
This paper investigates the correlates of student performance in mathematics and dictation tests among schoolchildren in Indonesia. This is the first such study to use a new nationally representative sample of Indonesian primary‐school students. Our dataset includes unique data on teacher absenteeism collected through direct observation, the first ever in Indonesia.
Measuring unemployment in developing countries is not straightforward due to the presence of a large number of discouraged workers. Including them into the labor force is sometimes appropriate in order to reflect the true state of unemployment. However, the decision must be based on careful research.
This paper uses the first nationally representative survey of teacher absence collected through direct observation to determine the patterns of absence among full-time teachers in public primary schools in Indonesia. Based on the survey data, the authors found a national teacher absence rate of 19%, with almost half of the absences due to unacceptable reasons.
Before the onset of the economic crisis in mid-1997, Indonesia was one of the most rapidly growing economies in the world. This rapid growth had generated an unprecedented reduction in poverty within a remarkably short period of time Between 1970 and 1996, absolute poverty fell by around 50 percentage points, accompanied by substantial gains in education and health standards.
