'Foreign teachers not qualified'

Alex Tubagus, Surabaya

More and more people now are entering into the "development" of schools, and their reasons for entry are not really about helping to build an educated society, but simply because they see it as a business venture from which they may be able to scalp some profits.

This creates problems for teachers. Although teachers can be attracted to these new schools initially, what they often find is a business setting for schools in which the school bosses press for maximum return on their investment. This also means that teachers' salaries are not as good as they should be. The schools will charge parents high enrollment and tuition fees but much of this money simply goes to the school bosses while the teachers continue to suffer under the same poor pay conditions.

Many schools are being allowed to open up using the title "national plus", but we must question what is really meant by this title. Many Indonesian teachers involved in these schools find that they are not any different to government national schools, so what does the "plus" really mean?

Many of these schools will sell themselves on the idea that they are using English language during the teaching-learning process. Recently there was a school that claimed to be an "Islamic national plus school" because they taught the Koran in English.

Friends and colleagues that have worked in these "English speaking" schools always point out that the factual reality in the schools is quite different to what is marketed outside to attract parents. They acknowledged that indeed efforts are made to use the English language, but often when a teacher is having problems getting students to understand, they revert to using Indonesian. This does, however, seem appropriate, because after all if the students do not understand in English, what is the use of insisting and persisting to teach in a language that they do not understand.

Indeed the whole idea of claiming to be English speaking Indonesian national plus school may be seen as nonsensical. Why must students leave behind their mother-tongue to (apparently) study in English? Of course, the value of having English at one's disposal cannot be underestimated, but why must we submit to having it take over from Indonesian language?

The study and practice of English as a second or foreign language seems legitimate but the claim of using a foreign language as the language of instruction seems both questionable and bordering on offensive. If a school is international, then the use of English seems logical and legitimate, but national schools should respect their nationality and their national tongue and this goes for the "national plus" schools too.

Also, we must question schools that claim to be better because they have expatriate or native-speaker teachers. This too is seen as a way of marketing schools but we must not be fooled into believing that simply because expatriates or native-speakers are employed they are necessarily good or capable teachers. One friend described her experiences of working with expatriates that were -- quote unquote -- rejects from their home countries.

Certainly not all expatriates would or could be described like this but equally certainly the title of "native-speaker teachers" should not fool us either. Schools will employ these native speakers but they may not always be teachers.

For example, I have met "native speakers" who have been employed as teachers that have been mailmen, car mechanics, door- to-door salesmen and hotel receptionists in their home countries. Now each one of these forms of employment could certainly lead a person to eventually become a teacher, but these people have never gained any teaching qualification or had any training to be a teacher but still they come to Indonesia and get jobs in our national schools.

Indonesian schools and educators are suffering and we need people that are truly committed to education, not just people that are looking to make a quick buck or think that they can take advantage of people's frustrations with Indonesian national schools.

If there are to be pluses in our national schools, let them be schools plus more books, schools plus better paid teachers, schools plus more and better trained teachers.

The writer is senior high school teacher based in Surabaya.