Cirebon, Indramayu short of thousands teachers<\/p>\n
NANA RUKMANA
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nCirebon<\/p>\n
Cirebon and Indramayu, two cities in West Java province, are
\nexperiencing a shortage of thousands of teachers for its
\nelementary and high schools, which makes it that much more
\ndifficult to improve the already low quality of their schools.<\/p>\n
Provincial administration officials acknowledged that at least
\n4,800 teachers were urgently required in the two cities but the
\nprovincial budget for this year, inexplicably, does not include a
\nline item for teacher recruitment.<\/p>\n
Indramayu Regency's Education Agency Head Herutoko said during
\na press briefing that Indramayu needed about 4,000 more teachers
\nfor elementary schools alone.<\/p>\n
He said that currently there were 6,311 teachers and staff
\nmembers for elementary schools in Indramayu.<\/p>\n
\"That number is certainly far from enough for the 996
\nelementary schools with 178,242 students across the regency,\"
\nsaid Herutoko.<\/p>\n
He added that such a shortage had worsened the quality of the
\nschools.<\/p>\n
Indramayu Regency Council Chairman Iwan Hendrawan said that
\nthe council would ask the local administration to solve the
\nproblem soon.<\/p>\n
\"They have to solve it quickly. Otherwise we'll see an even
\nlower quality of human resources in the future,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Cirebon Municipality's Education Agency Chief Ageung Sumaryana
\nsaid that Cirebon needed about 800 teachers for elementary,
\njunior high and senior high schools.<\/p>\n
\"The shortage is mostly in the junior high schools where we
\nneed about 340 teachers. But because we didn't have the foresight
\nto put it in our budget we can not recruit new teachers,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He added that in order to reduce the shortage the local
\nadministration should hire non-contract teachers, who were paid
\nhourly.<\/p>\n
He said that because of the limited finances, the
\nadministration could not hire the non-contract teachers as
\ngovernment employees although many of them had worked for the
\nschools for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n
He added that currently in Cirebon municipality there were
\n2,700 government-contracted teachers in 159 elementary schools,
\n40 junior high schools and 24 senior high schools.<\/p>\n
\"As the municipality is facing a shortage of teachers many of
\nthem also teach in private schools,\" said Ageung.<\/p>\n
Cirebon Municipality Council Chairman Suryana said that the
\nshortage was very serious and they had made it their top
\npriority. But fell short of saying what steps would be taken
\naside from asking another governmental department.<\/p>\n
\"We'll ask the Cirebon municipality to quickly solve the
\nproblem,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/cirebon-indramayu-short-of-thousands-teachers-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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