A judicial review hearing of Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers, Wednesday (8/27/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held the another hearing for the judicial review of Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers for case No. 99/PUU-XXIII/2025 on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 in the plenary courtroom. The petition was filed by Sri Hartono, a certified civil-servant teacher, who challenges the retirement age for teachers, which is set at sixty years of age.

The constitutional justices should have been hearing testimonies from the Petitioner’s and the Government’s experts but, based on information from the Registrar’s Office, the litigating parties had agreed that experts for the Petitioner and for the Government be examined at the same hearing. As such, the justices decided to postpone the hearing.

“The session should be to hear the experts, both for the Petitioner and the Government. However, the Government and the Registrar’s Office informed that the expert for the Petitioner had agreed to be heard alongside the expert for the Government, so today’s hearing cannot continue,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo as chair of the session.

“The Court postponed the hearing, [which is] rescheduled for Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 13:30 WIB to hear experts for the Petitioner and witnesses for the President,” he explained.

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At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, June 24, the Petitioner, who appeared virtually at the hearing, argued that the regulation stipulating a lower retirement age for teachers compared to lecturers contradicts the principle of meritocracy in civil service (ASN) policy. “The provision establishing different retirement ages for teachers and lecturers does not reflect the principle of meritocracy,” he said.

He further emphasized that such disparity not only creates injustice but also fosters social tension between the teaching and academic professions. According to him, mandatory retirement at the age of 60 has had a direct and tangible impact on him, both administratively and psychologically.

He also highlighted the fact that Indonesia is currently facing a shortage of educators, as reported by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. Therefore, enforcing retirement for experienced teachers at 60 years of age is seen as counterproductive to the Government’s efforts to strengthen the quality of human resources in the education sector.

For these reasons, Sri Hartono requested that the Constitutional Court declare the provision regulating the retirement age for teachers in the Teacher and Lecturer Law unconstitutional and not legally binding unless interpreted to mean that the retirement age for teachers should be equal to that of lecturers at 65 years.

Follow the progress of case No. 99/PUU-XXIII/2025

Author         : Utami Argawati
Editor          : N. Rosi
PR               : Raisa Ayuditha Marsaulina
Translator     : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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