Regional autonomy law (PP 25/2000) stated that local district is responsible for educational program. Province governments responsible to administer minority and poor students enrollment and to provide student textbooks. Central government through the Ministry of National Education manages student competency standards, school curricula, standardized testing and other national standards.

There are private, public and special (religious) schools. Public school gets funding from government and almost all of its teachers are civil servant.

In 2010, The National Education Ministry will receive Rp 51.8 trillion (about $5.1 billions) from the national budget, and this is a decrease from  Rp 62 trillion (about $6.2 billion) funding in 2009. The constitution of Indonesia says that 20% of the state budget must be spent on education.

Education system in Indonesia is divided into three levels:

1. Basic education.
Basic education from primary school (Sekolah Dasar) to junior secondary school (Sekolah Menengah Pertama) is free and compulsory for students between the ages of 6 and 15. There are Islamic schools as special schools. These Islamic schools are Madrasah Ibtidayah (equal with primary school) and Madrasah Tsanawiyah (equal with junior secondary school).

2. Secondary education.
After finishing basic education, students can choose high schools (Sekolah Menengah Atas) or vocational schools (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan). Islamic school which is equal with high school is Madrasah Aliyah and for vocational school is Madrasah Aliyah Kejuruan.

3. Higher education
Higher education consisting of diploma, bachelor (sarjana), masters, doctorate and postgraduate. Higher education in the Indonesia is offered in five types of institutions: University, Institute, Academy, Polytechnic and Sekolah tinggi.

The Government of Indonesia conducts national examinations at the completion of Grades 6, 9, and 12.  Grade 6 will take national standardized final exam (Ujian Akhir Sekolah Berstandard Nasional, UASBN) and for Grade 9 and 12 will take national exam (Ujian Nasional, UN).

The government would only set examination material in three subjects: English, Bahasa Indonesia and math. Other subjects would be provided for by the schools themselves. For grade 6 and 9, students have to pass the exam to move on to the next grade.  For grade 12 students have to pass the exam to graduate and continue to higher education.

For grade 9 and 12, the national standard passing grade criteria are:

• Minimum values for each subject is 4.25. Minimum average is 5.25 or
• Minimum value for one subject is 4.00 and for the other is 6.00

Districts could set passing grade higher than above criteria.