Policy on Paper, Practice in The Classroom: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Indonesia's Joint Ministerial Decree on Artificial Intelligence Governance in Education
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Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become integrated into educational settings worldwide, prompting governments to develop regulatory responses ranging from guided pedagogical integration to outright restrictions. In March 2026, Indonesia introduced a comprehensive national policy in this domain through a Joint Ministerial Decree signed by seven ministries, which restricted primary and secondary school students from using generative AI tools for schoolwork while requiring AI-use disclosure statements in higher education research. This study critically examined how the decree constructed AI as a source of educational risk and an object of governance and how these representations compared with international normative frameworks that favored guided pedagogical integration over prohibition. Employing critical discourse analysis (CDA), the study examined the decree's provisions, its underlying legal instruments, and public statements issued by the signatory ministers to identify four dominant discursive framings: protectionist, pedagogical, religious-moral, and administrative. The findings indicated that the decree was primarily grounded in a child-protection and risk-avoidance discourse, drawing partly on a preprint study concerning potential cognitive effects that had not yet been independently replicated, rather than consistently reflecting the evidence-based pedagogical approaches advocated in international guidance. The analysis also identified a distinctive Indonesian religious-moral framing of AI-related risks, rooted in national religious education legislation, that lacked a direct counterpart in comparable international policy frameworks. These findings contributed to the emerging literature on AI governance in educational systems across the Global South and highlighted the importance of developing evidence-informed, developmentally appropriate, and context-sensitive policies that balance student protection with responsible pedagogical integration of generative AI.
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