Unemployment Problems Become A Bitter Reality For Vocational High School Graduates In Indonesia

The problem of severe unemployment in Indonesia has made some people rely on government assistance, both cash and goods. (Between/M Riezko Bima Elko P)

JAKARTA Graduates of vocational high schools (SMK) are expected to have special skills and expertise so that they can get a job faster after completing a study. But in reality, the unemployment rate in Indonesia is dominated by vocational high school graduates. On the other hand, the number of workers in Indonesia is mostly filled with elementary school graduates.

Citing the website of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), SMK is a formal education that provides vocational education at the secondary level as an extension of SMP, MTs, or other equivalent forms. The purpose of education at SMK is to form graduates who are ready to enter the world of work, are employed, or as entrepreneurs.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that there were 219,485 schools in Indonesia in the 2022/2023 school year. Of these, there were 14,265 vocational schools, which MEANed a slight increase of 0.46 percent compared to the previous year of 14,199 units.

Vocational High School graduates are expected to be able to compete in getting jobs. But the reality says otherwise. According to BPS data until February 2023, there are 7.99 million unemployed in Indonesia. The highest unemployment is still a graduate of SMK of 9.60 percent, while the graduates of SMA are 7.69 percent.

In 2021, the highest vocational graduates contributed 11.45 percent of the total 7.99 million unemployed in Indonesia. In 2023 it fell to 9.60 percent. This means that during the last two years the government's efforts to boost vocational education have only succeeded in reducing 1.85 percent of SMK unemployment.

According to the Head of the Standard Agency, the Curriculum and Education Assessment of the Ministry of Education and Culture Anindito Aditomo said the large number of unemployment rates from SMK graduates was due to multifactors. The first is the availability of the job itself. Anindito admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the economy, but in addition, the discrepancy between education in schools and the needs of the world of work is also a factor.

"In terms of education itself, there is still amiss match, inequality. So it still doesn't connect what is studied in SMK with what is needed in the world of work," said Anindito.

For this reason, the Ministry of Education and Culture through the Merdeka Curriculum improves the curriculum in order to meet the competence of vocational graduates needed by the world of work.

"If the curriculum is stiff, vocational graduates cannot adapt to the world of work or the industrial world quickly," he explained.

"The independent curriculum provides more practice space and practitioners to teach," said Anindito again.

On the other hand, the National Coordinator of the Education and Teacher Association (P2G) Satriwan Salim regretted that the three presidential candidates, namely Anies Baswedan, Prabowo Subianto, and Ganjar Pranowo, did not touch the issue in the Fifth Debate of the 2024 Presidential Election, Sunday (4/4/2024). Even though the final debate raised the theme of education, health, employment, culture, information technology, as well as social welfare and inclusion.

"Looking at the debate on the presidential candidate on education issues, P2G considers that it has not touched the fundamental issues of national education," said Satriwan.

In addition, the Debate of Presidential Candidates last weekend also did not provide a solution to the fact that currently the workforce of elementary school graduates still dominates.

BPS shows that until 2023, in grades, the workforce graduated from SD 39.76 percent, graduated from SMA 19.18 percent, graduated from SMP 18.24 percent, the rest graduated from Universities D1-3 2.20 percent and D4, S1, S2, S3 at 9.13 percent. This means that the productivity of Indonesian workers is still produced by elementary school graduates.

"Why is the absorption of the workforce for elementary school graduates still dominant? The higher the level, the greater the workforce. This should be answered in the Presidential Candidate Debate, but not touched," said Satriwan again.

Meanwhile, according to the Special Staff of the Minister of Manpower, Dita Indah Sari, this is a challenge for the government in overcoming intellectual unemployment which is now rife in Indonesia.

"Unemployment of educated people, that's what we are facing now, so low education cannot be more prosperous, while education is difficult to get work, that's the problem," said Dita.

In addition, Dita also said that the reason why elementary and junior high school graduates are less unemployed is because they have higher survival power so that it is easier to accept any work.

"So elementary and junior high school have greater survival power, have the ability to accept any work, don't really choose, the important thing is that they work, that's what makes the unemployment rate dominated by the high school level, SMK," said Dita explaining.