Indonesian teachers mostly overworked and underpaid

Indonesian teachers mostly overworked and underpaid

Leo Wahyudi S., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian teachers are overworked and underpaid, according to
a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) report.

An Indonesian primary school teacher works 1,260 hours a year,
which is very high, the report said.

Teachers' salaries, which were low before the economic crisis
in 1997, have dropped further in recent years with annual
salaries, including bonuses, of $2,938 Purchasing Power Parities
(PPP) in primary and lower secondary education, and $3,537 PPP in
upper secondary education, it said.

Purchasing Power Parities means the currency exchange rates
that equalize the purchasing power of different currencies.

According to the basic reference statistics of 1998,
Indonesian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in equivalent
U.S. dollars converted to PPPs was $2,626, compared to education-
standardized countries at $5,360, and this figure is considered
low.

UNESCO was reporting on its analysis on trends in educational
finance and governance with particular attention paid to teachers
and teaching conditions in some education indicator countries,
such as Chile, Thailand, Tunisia, The Philippines, Jordan,
Malaysia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Indonesia, in its
2001 edition.

The economic crisis and political instability in Indonesia
have contributed to a decline in GDP per capita between 1997 and
1999 from 3,091 to 2,626.

Decreasing population growth in Indonesia between 1997 and
2000 still unveils chances to improve the education system, but
financial resources remain limited, the report said.

Unfortunately, the economic crisis led some countries to
redistribute public funding between levels of education and
categories of expenditure in such a way that the education budget
was inadequate, it said.

Since the workload of the primary teacher is 1,260 hours per
year, an Indonesian teacher's salary is low, the report said.

"Teachers are expected to respond to an increasing range of
societal demands, but greater expectations are often accompanied
by fewer resources."

The report said the global trend toward education and its
expectation is high. Teachers are supposed to be experts in one
or more specific subjects and this demands an increasing level of
academic qualifications, it said.

Attracting skilled individuals and retaining them in the
teaching profession are essential prerequisites for ensuring
high-quality education in the future, the report said.

The report challenges individuals to remain in the teaching
profession and the country to examine policy choices.

"The government is to regard material incentives, working
conditions, hours of teaching, class size and student-teacher
ratios to be factors of significance in attempting to improve the
quality of education."