Education for all has been Indonesian policy since it was first agreed in 2000 through the Dakar Declaration. Responding to the agreement, the Government of Indonesia implemented an education-for-all program in the 2000–2015 period. The program included: basic education, equality, gender mainstreaming and education quality improvement. Indonesia also adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. The fourth goal is to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.
Primary school enrolment, attendance and completion rates for Indonesia’s children with disabilities are noticeably low. Data from the 2010 census indicated that only 53 per cent of people with disabilities ever attended school compared to 98 per cent of people with no disability.
Ensuring that all Indonesians participate in a quality, relevant education will contribute directly to the improvement of workforce and employment – and regional economic competitiveness – and, at the same time, will help ensure that citizens live healthy and productive lives.
This October 2019 policy brief explores key strategic issues and policy recommendations for inclusive education in Indonesia. The brief draws on INOVASI’s work and body of evidence to date, including emerging pilot endline data from Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara. A further update of the brief will be done in late 2019, with additional endline evidence from INOVASI’s four partner provinces.