Initiative needed to train our teachers properly

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): Specialized teachers in music, the visual arts and physical education at the elementary school level are hard to find in Indonesia.

These teachers have been specially trained and can professionally educate children in these three areas. Many parents and teachers do not realize that teaching music, visual arts and physical education at the elementary level needs special knowledge and skills. Not just any teacher who plays music can teach music, and there is no guarantee that a teacher proficient in teaching music at the high school level can perform equally well with grade one to grade three pupils.

At the high school level, music teachers can concentrate on performance. At this level a kind of natural selection process has already taken place. Students who have an aptitude for music can clearly be identified and separated from average students. The teacher's task is to develop two separate programs -- one so the musically gifted can master various forms of musical expression and the other for ordinary students to appreciate musical beauty.

At the lower elementary levels there are no clear indicators for those with special musical talent. All children perform more or less equally well at this stage, with the exception of those children who have received private music instruction at home. Here it is the task of the teacher to discover who has special talent, who has limited talent, who is musically ordinary, who is musically deft and who is musically barren. Special training is needed to do this. A good teacher can tell by the way a child talks if he or she has a gift to express things well musically.

The same principle is true for teaching the visual arts and physical education. Again, teaching these subjects at the lower grades is different than teaching at the high school level or at upper elementary school levels. Assigning teachers without special training could harm the children and an inappropriate comment can kill a budding interest. At the same time, undue praise can create false hope and a distorted image of one's talent.

The harm most often brought about by unqualified teachers is that the potential of "normal children" is not actualized. This means that those children who could have achieved something are reduced to total ignorance or incompetence in these fields. This is not only a loss to the student but also to the community and the nation.

Children with real talent in these fields generally will not experience any significant loss due to unqualified teachers. It is primarily "normal children" and those with limited talent who are victimized by unprofessional practices.

The number of children in these two categories is much bigger than the number of children with great talent. If our children in the past had been educated by teachers with professional knowledge and skills, some might have become individuals of appreciable achievement, or even outstanding achievement.

How does one explain the current situation in our elementary schools? Isn't there any special training in these fields?

The main problem lies in our training system. Training for specialization in these three areas is available only at the S-1 level, the Sarjana level. This is considered a training level for prospective high school teachers. Training for prospective elementary school teachers is provided at the D-2 level, a level considered lower than the S-level because it lasts for only two years, after senior high school.

Only those who prepare themselves to become secondary school teachers can specialize in teaching music, visual arts and physical education. Within the training program for elementary schools there is no such opportunity. Students are trained to teach everything at the elementary school level, except religion, which can only be provided by teachers that have graduated from Islamic teacher training institutions.

The training of religion (Islam) teachers is done by institutions under the Ministry of Religion, and not the Ministry of Education and Culture. Though it may have changed, there used to be a sharp distinction between the training for Islamic elementary schools (the Ibtidaiyah) and Islamic secondary school teachers (the Tsanawiyah and the Aliyah). Here, too, the training for elementary school teachers is considered much simpler than that for prospective secondary school teachers.

The system for training teachers has become too complex. With this system we fail to provide our elementary schools with the kind of teachers needed to carry out an educational program which can truly guide our children to develop their potential.

The time has come for a careful review of our system and now the big question is: Who will take the initiative?

The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.