INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN INDONESIA: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

The aim of inclusive education is to eliminate social exclusion as an effect of attitudes and responses to diversity in race, social class, ethnicity, religion, gender and ability [1]. However, providing an effective education for all children and young people is the biggest challenge facing school systems throughout the world [2]. The implementation of inclusive education within a single country would be different with other countries or places. This differentiation is mostly caused by multiple perspectives on inclusion meaning that depends on the cultural and political values, and the willingness of state for its implementation [3]. Indonesia is the largest and the most populated country situated in Southeast Asia. Indonesia encompasses some 13.000 islands and thousands languages. It shares geo-political boundaries with Singapore and Malaysia to its northwest (sharing the island of Kalimantan, previously known as Borneo, with two of Malaysia's eastern states and the Kingdom of Brunei), the Philippines in the North, Australia in the south east while sharing the greater island of Papua with Papua New Guinea in the east. In its south is the Indian Ocean [4]. However, the development of inclusive education in Indonesia remains challenge. Since 2003, the Indonesian Government has implemented a new legislation (law on National Education System Number 20 Year 2003) dealing with inclusive education for all Indonesian people. This new law, has been further strengthened by other laws in order to provide a legal basis for implementing inclusive education in Indonesia (permendiknas No 70 Year 2009 and Government Law No 17 Year 2010). However, Indonesia has not express any significant commitment to inclusive education and continues to apply the segregated education by perpetuating the special schools for disabled students rather than send them to a public school [5]. Therefore, this paper would like to highlight the recent development, some of the key issues, challenges and recommendations pertinent to the implementation of inclusive education in Indonesia.