This is a list of notable high schools in Indonesia . This list is not intended to be complete, as there would be too many high schools.
In Indonesia, primary schools or SD (Indonesian : Sekolah Dasar—"Elementary School") are from 1st to 6th grade, while high schools (secondary school) generally comprise junior secondary school (7th–9th grade) or SMP (Indonesian : Sekolah Menengah Pertama—"First Middle-grade School"), senior secondary school (10–12th grade) or SMA (Indonesian : Sekolah Menengah Atas—"Upper Middle-grade School") or SMU (Indonesian : Sekolah Menengah Umum—"General Middle-grade School") and SMK (Indonesian : Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan—"Middle-grade Vocational School"), with virtually all public schools operated this way. Private schools may combine them, even though the students still wear different uniforms.
Public schools (SMPN, SMAN/SMUN, and SMKN, with "N" being Negeri or "State") employ standardized uniform outfits: red skirts and short trousers for primary schoolers, navy blue skirts and short trousers for junior secondary schoolers, and grey long skirts and long trousers for senior secondary schoolers. Vocational schools and some vocational schoolers add different uniform outfits. With some students wearing a white shirt on top. Private schools may choose different outfits for their students, but schools generally employ uniforms—sometimes several sets of them—including the Pramuka (boyscout) uniform, the batik uniform, etc. Public schools often, but not always, employ numbers in their names, corresponding to the order of their formation, e.g. SD/SMP/SMA Negeri 1/2/3, etc., followed by city/regency names, and usually don't carry personal names.
Before 2015, the mandatory time in school in Indonesia was 9 years, from 1st to 9th grade; therefore, senior secondary school was not mandatory. Since 2015, however, the mandatory school has been extended throughout the 12th grades. Tertiary schools (Indonesian : Sekolah tinggi—"High School") are college and university level.
Schools in Indonesia are under the care of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and for some period (2014–2019), the universities ("high" school or sekolah tinggi) are moved under the Ministry of Research and Technology. The religious schools are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Religion.
Religiously organized schools include Muslim, Christian, and Catholic private schools. Muslim schools uses Arabic terms in their names, like: Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI) = SD, Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) = SMP, and Madrasah Aliyah (MA) = SMA. Christian schools use the abbreviation SDK, SMPK, SMAK/SMUK, or spelt out SD Kristen, SMP Kristen, or SMA Kristen in their names. Catholic schools use Saints (Santo) and Saintesses' (Santa) names in their school names or use Kolese (college) in their names. Secular schools didn't use any of the above and chose secular names. Vocational schools (mainly for senior secondary schools) are called SMK (Indonesian : Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan—"Vocational Middle-grade School"). Foreign-operated schools may use English, romanized Arabic, or Chinese (pinyin) names.
According to school year 2017–18 senior secondary school (SMA) statistics from Ministry of Education, [1] in 2017, Indonesia has 13.495 SMA (almost 50-50 ratio between public and private schools) with more than 160 thousand total classrooms (around 12 classrooms per school) and 30 thousands laboratories and 11 thousands libraries, 1,6 million new/10th grade SMA students (45%–55% male-female ratio), 4.8 million total SMA students (averaging 356 students per school, almost evenly distributed between 10th, 11th, and slightly lower number of 12th graders), 1.4 million graduates (98.8% completion rates, 0.67% dropouts, 0.2% repeats), more than 300 thousands SMA headperson and teachers (averaging 22 teachers per school), and almost 60 thousand other non-teaching staff.
The most schools are in West Java and East Java (the most heavily populated provinces), with around 1.5 thousand each (671 and 535 thousand students, respectively), while the youngest province of Indonesia, North Kalimantan, has the fewest schools, 59, with 16 thousand students.
With regard to school time, almost all schools (92,1%) are morning schools, while 4,4% are evening schools, and the rest are a combination. With regard to religion, 79% of the students are Moslem, 12% Protestants, 5% Catholics, 2% Hindu, 1% Buddhist, with a very small minority (0.05%) of Confucianist religion, and other beliefs. With regard to preference for public/private schools, Moslem and Hindu students overwhelmingly favor public schools, Christians and Catholics somewhat prefer public schools, and Buddhists and Confucianists overwhelmingly favor private schools.
In 2017, Indonesia had more than 300 thousands SMA teachers and headmasters/mistresses (41–59% male-female ratio), which is highly skewed towards public schools (72% teachers); among them, 156 thousand full-time teachers (more than 50%) have the coveted status of National Civil Servant (Pegawai Negeri Sipil—PNS), further split between 147 thousands (94% of PNS) teaching in public school and 8 thousands (6% of PNS) in private schools, while the rest of the teachers are privately employed (19%) or part-time teachers (31%). The majority of the teachers (98%) have a bachelor's degree or higher, are quite young (56% are 40 years old or younger, and only 7% are 56 years old or older), and are relatively new (56% have only worked for less than 10 years, while 14% have worked for more than 25 years). Their numbers have decreased by around 20% from two years ago (362 thousands). The average number of teachers per school is 23.
In 2017, Indonesia had 4.8 million total SMA students, averaging 356 students per school in general, 519 students per public school, and 190 students per private school, with an average of 30 students per class and 16 students per teacher. The number of repeat-graders are 0.2% on average, and the number of dropouts are 0.67%, distributed around 25% 10th graders, 25% 11th graders, and 50% 12th graders with total of more than 31 thousand students (55–45% male-female ratio), which are lower than the previous two years (36 and 40 thousands, respectively). The average completion rate of SMA students is 98.8%.
From provincial statistics, the province with the most students per school is Bali (545), while the least is North Maluku (198), and the most teachers per school are West Sumatra (36) and Bali (34), and the least is North Maluku (15). But for private school, West Java has the most number of students per school (891), while private schools in Central Kalimantan only have 95 students per school.
Below are some of the private schools in Indonesia: (Some of the English names of these schools are not necessarily official names, but merely translation. But most with official English names have influences based on international curriculums, international affiliations or religious affiliations.)
Below are some of the public senior secondary schools (SMP/SMA Negeri) in Indonesia:
Below are some of the public senior vocational school (SMK Negeri) in Indonesia:
Medan is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra. The nearby Strait of Malacca, Port of Belawan, and Kualanamu International Airport make Medan a regional hub and multicultural metropolis, acting as a financial centre for Sumatra and a gateway to the western part of Indonesia. About 60% of the economy in North Sumatra is backed by trading, agriculture, and processing industries, including exports from its 4 million acres of palm oil plantations. The National Development Planning Agency listed Medan as one of the four main central cities in Indonesia, alongside Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar. In terms of population, it is the most populous city in Indonesia outside of the island of Java. Its population as of 2023 is approximately equal to the country of Moldova.
A secondary school or high school is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both lower secondary education and upper secondary education, i.e., both levels 2 and 3 of the ISCED scale, but these can also be provided in separate schools. There may be other variations in the provision: for example, children in Australia, Hong Kong, and Spain change from the primary to secondary systems a year later at the age of 12, with the ISCED's first year of lower secondary being the last year of primary provision.
Education in Indonesia falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology and the Ministry of Religious Affairs. In Indonesia, all citizens must undertake twelve years of compulsory education which consists of six years at elementary level and three each at middle and high school levels. Islamic, Christian, Hinduism, Buddhist and Confucianism schools are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Bandar Lampung is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Lampung. Located on the southern tip of Sumatra, Bandar Lampung was originally called Tanjungkarang–Telukbetung, since it was a unification of two major settlements in Lampung, before being renamed in 1983.
Kebumen Regency is a regency in the southern part of the Indonesian province of Central Java. It covers an area of 1,281.115 km2 and had a population of 1,159,926 at the 2010 Census and 1,350,438 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 1,397,555. Its capital is the large town of Kebumen.
Mambau National Secondary School is a national secondary school which was opened in 1989. The school is located in Mambau, Seremban District, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.
Gesang is a small town located the Tempeh subdistrict of East Java, approximately 30 minutes drives from Lumajang and 4 hours from Surabaya. It borders the towns of Jokarto (North), Pulo (East), Jatisari, Semumu (South) and Nguter (West).
South Tangerang is a city in the province of Banten, Indonesia. Located 30 km (19 mi) on the southwestern border of Jakarta, the city forms part of the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area. It was administratively separated from Tangerang Regency on 26 November 2008. According to the 2020 Census, the city population was 1,354,350 inhabitants, while the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 1,404,785 - comprising 700,754 males and 704,031 females. The total area is 164.85 km2 (63.65 sq mi). It is the second-largest city in Banten in terms of population, and has grown rapidly, not only as Jakarta's satellite city, but also the development of business districts and commerce due to presence of large-scale planned town by private developers.
SMA Negeri 6 Bandung is a public senior high school in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. SMAN 6 Bandung was established in 1956, and Located in Jalan Pasirkaliki No.51, Bandung.
State Senior High School 13 Bekasi is a public senior high school in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia. State Senior High School 13 Bekasi was established in 2005 and known as USB SMAN 13 Bekasi. It is located in Jalan Pariwisata Raya Perum Bumi Bekasi Baru Utara Rawalumbu.
31 Senior High School Jakarta or Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) Negeri 31 Jakarta is one of the public schools in the Province of Jakarta, Indonesia. Similar to all high schools in Indonesia, there are three years of lessons, ranging from 10th Grade to 12th Grade. It was founded in 1978, and has 30 classes and 900 students. 10th Grade has 10 classes from A to J, 11th and 12th Science have 4 classes, 11th and 12th Social have 4 classes, and 11th and 12th Language have only one class.
Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 4 Pontianak is one of the Public Schools in the Province of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Telkom Vocational School or SMK Telkom Medan is a vocational school with Telecommunication and Information Engineering vocational program under the auspices of Sandhykara Putra Telkom Foundation. SMK Telkom is categorized as an international school and has an ISO 9001 standard. SMK Telkom Medan become The Best Vocational School in Medan or one of the Best Schools in Indonesia. The accreditation score of this school is nearly perfect (100), with score of 97 in Switching Engineering program and 95 on the Computer and Network Engineering program.
Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) Kolese Gonzaga is a private Catholic secondary school, located in Pejaten Barat, South Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. Established by the Indonesian Province of the Society of Jesus in 1987, the school began as a boys' school and commenced accepting girls in 1990. It was originally named as Kolese Kanisius Unit Selatan and got its current name in 1990. Its nicknames are Gonz and GC.
Bojonegoro District is a town which serves as the capital of Bojonegoro Regency, East Java, Indonesia.
The OSN, previously KSN (Indonesian: Kompetisi Sains Nasional) is a science competition for Indonesian students held by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. This competition consists of a few competitions for elementary school (SD) students, junior high school (SMP) students, and senior high school (SMA) students.
PT Solo Manufaktur Kreasi, trading as Esemka, is an Indonesian automotive company based in Solo, Indonesia. The "Esemka" brand was named as the abbreviation of vocational high school to recognize the effort of the students to develop the native car brand. Though initially local media used to term it as national car brand of Indonesia, but the company described Esemka as a vehicle which is totally made in Indonesia. Since 2013 an average of 10 units of SUV and mini trucks had been manufactured per month by the company. The company started commercial production of various model of cars and minivan in its manufacturing plant at Demangan village, Boyolali Regency in Central Java since 2016. It was officially inaugurated by interim president of indonesia Joko Widodo on 6 September 2019. At the time of inauguration, the manufacturing plant has production capacity of 12,000 vehicles per year. Esemka uses locally made components from companies such as PT INKA and Pertamina.
Sudjiran Resosudarmo (1920–1985) was an Indonesian geographer and teacher. He was the rector of Institut Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (IKIP) Jakarta, now known as the State University of Jakarta, from 1980 till 1984.
SMK Negeri 10 Bandung is a public vocational high school for performing arts in West Java, Indonesia. The education period at SMK Negeri 10 Bandung is completed within three years and four years, starting from 10th grade to 12th grade and 10th grade to 13th grade.