Wedding Gold to Motorcycles: The Items Teachers Pawned in Desperate Times

Research by the Institute for Demographic and Poverty Studies (IDEAS) and Dompet Dhuafa in May 2024 shows that 56.5% of teacher respondents admitted to pawning belongings when facing urgent needs. Meanwhile, 43.4% of teachers reported never pawning any possessions.

For teachers facing hardship requiring them to pawn items, gold jewelry was the most commonly pawned item, representing 38.5% of respondents.

(Read also: 20.5% of Contract Teachers Earn Less Than Rp500,000 Per Month)

The second most common item was the Vehicle Ownership Certificate (BPKB) for vehicles, pawned by 14% of respondents. Third was land or house certificates, at 13% of respondents.

Motorcycles also served as an "emergency financial resource" for 11.4% of teachers in dire straits. Following this was wedding gold, pawned by 4.3% of teacher respondents.

Then there were laptops, pawned by 3.9% of teacher respondents; civil servant appointment letters (SK PNS) at 1.7%; mobile phones at 1.3%; cameras at 0.8%. Other items accounted for 10.4%.

IDEAS notes that despite numerous challenges faced by teachers, such as inadequate wages and economic hardship, they remain committed to teaching until retirement.

"93.5% of teachers stated they will continue teaching until retirement," IDEAS wrote in its research report on Tuesday, May 21, 2024.

The survey on teacher welfare in Indonesia was conducted by IDEAS and Dompet Dhuafa during the first week of May 2024 in conjunction with National Education Day.

The online survey involved 403 teacher respondents across 25 provinces, comprising 291 respondents from Java and 112 from outside Java.

Survey respondents consisted of 123 civil servant teachers (PNS), 118 permanent foundation teachers, 117 contract or honorary teachers, and 45 PPPK teachers.

(Read also: Low Incomes Lead Many Teachers to Borrow from Banks and Online Lenders)