Bill aims to boost teachers' skills
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Work is a balancing act for Suparti, a teacher with 11 years' experience who is employed by two schools some 50 kilometers apart.
She said her life as a teacher had become an idealism versus financial demands trade-off. Due to working two jobs, she has barely any time to develop her teaching methods.
"I don't even have time to read books related to economics, the subject that I teach," said the 33-year-old woman, who is the principal of SMU Tadika Pertiwi Depok.
Only 19 out of her 31 students passed the recent national exams.
"My students are used to memorizing theories while the exam's questions are mostly applied economics," she said.
Suparti is among some 861,915 secondary level teachers now under the government's scrutiny after the number of students failing the national exams doubled from last year's figure to around 800,000.
The government has partially blamed the failure rate on teachers.
A recent education ministry report showed that only 10 to 20 percent of the country's primary and secondary level teachers passed their competency test. The test is taken by all trained teachers who want to become civil servants.
Education experts have said improving the quality of education here depends on the political will of both the central and local governments to provide enough funding and training for teachers, aside from better remuneration and career planning.
The government has proposed a draft law on teachers and lecturers, which specifies the rights and obligations of education professionals.
According to the draft, education professionals must meet a high standard of competence, which would be regularly assessed. They are entitled to adequate remuneration, achievement-based promotions and the tools required by their profession.
The education ministry's director general for human resource development, Fasli Djalal, said last week that the minimum education requirement for teachers would be D4 (university diploma-level) or S1 (university degree-level), plus 38 to 40 credits in a professional subject.
Fasli said to increase teachers' competence, teacher training would be offered, as well as local and national workshops. "However, if they are already well-educated, they do not have to participate and will receive remuneration according to their salaries," he said.
Education professionals appointed to conflict-areas or remote regions will be automatically promoted after a specified period of time and are entitled to an extra allowance, the draft says.
It says the education system must protect teachers from unfair dismissal and ensure their salaries are sufficient.
"With the new rights and requirements, we will be able to gradually raise the competence of teachers as well as national education standards," Fasli said. (003)