Dear all education community members. Let me introduce myself first before I post the story of schooling in my country.

I am from Indonesia. People call me Fauzi. I have three kids. They are two girls and a boy. My eldest daughter now goes to a junior school. Junior school lasts for three years. My daughter has finished elementary school for six years. In 2021, she enters a junior school. Now, she is 12 years old.

Madrasah Tsanawiah and State Junior School

There is a slight difference between Madrasah Tsanawiah and the Junior School. Madrasah Tsanawiah is a junior school that emphasizes Islamic teaching. The curriculum is the same as in junior school, but there is additional teaching. That is Islamic knowledge. Math, physics, science, social studies, and the arts are all taught in Madrasah.

The biggest difference is that madrasah is under the supervision of the Religious Ministry while junior school is under the Education Ministry of Indonesia. This difference has an impact on funding. Schools that are under the supervision of the Education Ministry have enough funds to renovate schools, pay for students' activities, and supply them with adequate facilities.

Madrasah is under the Religious Ministry. It does not receive funds as large as the junior school. The funds from the Religious Ministry are very minimal. There are some facilities in my daughter's school that are broken. My daughter studies at Madrasah.

For that reason, some parents of the students have taken an initiative to help the school with crowdfunding. We held a meeting to discuss the funding to renovate some of the broken classrooms. There are four classrooms that are not suitable for learning activities.

The parents make a small committee to collect the fund. We reached an agreement to raise 1,100,000 or ($90) IDR per parent for one year. Madrasah is actually a free school in my country. Students will not be charged for monthly or yearly payments. Because it is an initiative, the total amount of the money is not enough to renovate the broken classrooms as the ideal learning classrooms. However, with this help, students will feel more comfortable studying.

The majority of Madrasah school parents come from lower and middle-class families.Crowdfunding with such a large amount of money is burdensome, but we realize that our children should get the best facilities they can get. All parents understand that the government now has little money because of the Covid funding.

As a parent, I understand the condition of the school. Most parents also accept the agreement because they care about their children. We should give the best effort to educate our children. That is the commitment that we made in the parents' meeting. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy my post. I also want to know the level of education in your country.

In Indonesia, children should go to kindergarten school at the age of 6. Then , they should finish primary school for six years, starting at 7 years old. After primary school, children will continue for 3 more years in junior school. After junior school, they should finish 3 years of senior school or vocational school. Children can choose to get a job or go to university after that.

This is the level of education in Indonesia