Central Government Political Intervention in the Implementation of Educational Autonomy in Indonesia

This article presents a critical analysis of the central government's political intervention in the administration of educational autonomy in Indonesia. In reference to developed countries, education is a fundamental commodity and a top priority for developing national potential in global competition. In democratic countries, it is imperative to manage the government and its related elements using a democratic system. In the context of education in Indonesia, as a democratic country, educational institutions should ideally have ample space to determine their direction in accordance with the needs and demands of the times within the framework of national educational goals. Therefore, the expectation is that the education system should be developed in a decentralized (autonomous) manner rather than centralized. However, in reality, the national education system law has become a political tool for the government to set centralized policies without considering regional situations and conditions. In this issue, the central government seems to enforce the implementation of all educational policy products, particularly in the curriculum sector. The findings of this study indicate that the national education curriculum has undergone 11 changes from 1947, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1984, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2013, and 2022 based on the central government's political policies. These curriculum changes have both positive and negative impacts on the improvement of education quality. The positive impact is that students acquire current knowledge in line with contemporary demands, while the negative impact is that teachers are confused in responding to these changes, which in turn lowers student achievement.