Amid plans to change PPPK teacher status, lawmakers urge support for private madrasah teachers

As Indonesia works to provide greater status certainty for teachers employed under government contracts, a lawmaker is warning that private madrasah teachers must not be left behind.

Dini Rahmania, a member of Commission VIII of the House of Representatives, said hundreds of thousands of private madrasah teachers had served for years while receiving very low honorariums and lacking certainty over their welfare. Her remarks followed a peaceful demonstration by private madrasah teachers from several regions outside the parliamentary complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Feb. 11, 2026.

The teachers demanded policies against discrimination in welfare and professional protection. Rahmania said the Ministry of Religious Affairs had previously proposed placing about 630,000 madrasah teachers under the PPPK, or government employee with a work agreement, scheme. She said the figure showed the scale of the problem and the need for government support.

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The Ministry of Religious Affairs previously proposed that around 630,000 madrasah teachers be included in the PPPK scheme. This shows that the problem is very large and requires government support.

Rahmania argued that reforming PPPK status should open the way to a broader overhaul of madrasah education, rather than simply shifting employment administration from one institution to another. If existing regulations block the appointment of private madrasah teachers as PPPK employees, she said the government and parliament should find an affirmative mechanism.

Teachers in public and private madrasahs perform the same educational work, Rahmania said. “The state should not distinguish the value of a teacher’s service simply because one teaches in a public madrasah and the other teaches in a private madrasah.”

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The state should not distinguish the value of a teacher’s service simply because one teaches in a public madrasah and the other teaches in a private madrasah.