City to hire only 122 new teachers

City to hire only 122 new teachers

JAKARTA (JP): The city education and teaching office will hire
only 122 new elementary school teachers this academic year even
though it has been estimated that Jakarta currently needs 2,300
additional teachers, an official has said.

Sulam Ruchiyat of the office said yesterday that the city's
inability to recruit more teachers was mainly due to a lack of
funds.

"Out of the 122 new positions, 120 will be assigned to be
subject teachers and the remaining two would be for sports and
religious studies," Sulam said.

If the city could hire all 2,300 new teachers it needed, 800
would be for sports and 1,500 would be subject teachers, he said.

He explained that the number of applicants for elementary
teaching positions was dropping substantially. Only 956 people
had submitted applications for teaching positions this year
compared to some 1,500 applicants last year.

"I don't understand what is happening here. You would think
that the monetary situation would prompt a lot of people to
apply. But this year is quite different for previous years. Maybe
becoming an elementary teacher is not thought to be as promising
as it used to be," Sulam said.

Currently, there were some 2,000 part-time elementary teachers
who were graduates of Teacher Training and Education Institutes
(IKIP), he said.

"But none of them seem to be applying to become full-time
teachers," he added.

Based on the office's data, there are 27,040 public elementary
school teachers in Jakarta. Ideally, the city's 3,408 elementary
schools should employ some 40,000 teachers to teach their pupils.

Moonlighting

Due to a salary of only Rp 192,500 (US$29) per month, teachers
are usually forced to seek moonlighting jobs to earn more money.

Also, many are assigned to teach subjects they know little
about due to a lack of trained teachers in some subjects.

"Many teachers here are forced to become sports or English
teachers despite their limited knowledge of the two subjects. I
know this is wrong ... but what can we do? There's
not enough good sports teachers in the city," he said.

When asked whether the lack of professional sports teachers
was because the government phased out Teacher Training Schools in
1989, he refused to comment but admitted that it was probably one
of the causes.

"I can't say much about that. That was a ruling from higher
authorities. All I know is that Jakarta needs more elementary
teachers now," he added.

Afiff Hamka of the city council's commission E on welfare
affairs, said that the employment of more teachers in the city
was a must.

"Think of the children. Many of the pupils now do not have
sufficient sports knowledge because their teachers fail to teach
them properly. Students rarely play sports anymore ... I think
the best way is to recruit more qualified teachers. Not just
picking them randomly," he said.

Afiff said the education world would be in jeopardy if the
ministry failed to allocate proper funding for teachers.

"Every teacher has to be placed according to his or her
background. For instance, you can't assign a mathematics teacher
to teach sports," he added.

All of the elementary school teacher applicants this year will
undergo a series of tests Monday in the Senayan indoor stadium in
Central Jakarta.

Subjects tested will include Indonesian, Pancasila, history,
general knowledge and psychology. A special screening process
will also be held by the municipality after the tests. (edt)