The Government of Indonesia has established a number of policies to provide teachers with professional teaching competence. Since 2018, anyone with a bachelor’s degree is eligible to apply to pre-service Teacher Professional Education (Pendidikan Profesi Guru/PPG) held by selected teacher colleges (lembaga pendidikan tenaga kependidikan/LPTK). Teacher candidates who have completed the pre-service PPG will receive a teaching certificate—and thus be regarded as professional—as well as a certification allowance equal to their basic salary, thereby earning twice the income of uncertified teachers. But the number of seats for the pre-service PPG is minimal. Many teachers eventually started their teaching careers without certification and later obtained them after teaching for more than five years.

This policy brief outlines three strategies that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT) can implement to ensure teacher colleges, as teacher education providers, improve the quality of their graduates.

This policy brief is drawn from the findings of two RISE Programme in Indonesia studies on pre-service PPG and one on novice teachers: “Selecting Teachers in Indonesia: Predicting Teacher Performance using Pre-Employment Information” and "A Policy Lens on Becoming a Teacher: A Longitudinal Diary Study of Novice Teacher Professional Identity Formation in Indonesia".