Legislators concerned over teachers' fates

Legislators concerned over teachers' fates

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives criticized
yesterday the arduous official procedures that underpaid teachers
must carry out for promotion.

In a hearing with officials from the Civil Servant
Administration Agency, house members also expressed their concern
over uneven distribution of teachers in various areas across the
country.

They pointed out that the burdensome procedures which need to
be carried out to obtain credit points have too often delayed
teachers' promotion.

"Many teachers, especially those serving in remote parts of
the country, are not aware of the procedures which enable them to
gain credit points for promotion," Umroh Machfudhoh said, a
legislator from the house's Commission IX, which oversees
educational and cultural affairs.

Umroh said government agencies should provide supervision and
information about the credit system so teachers could benefit
from it.

House member Ida Bagus Gunadha said that the promotion of
teachers was especially difficult because it was only "brisk"
teachers, who found their way around to seminars and courses, who
were apt at gaining credit points.

These teachers, he pointed out, were not necessarily the hard-
working types which diligently teach in the classroom.

"On the other hand, the low profile teachers who spend their
time teaching in the classroom never get a chance to attend such
events and therefore seldom get credit points," Gunadha said.

He found that in several cases, seminars were held to even out
the number of teachers gaining credit points.

Head of the agency Soenarko said that between April, 1984 and
October, 1989, the promotion of civil servant teachers to a
higher echelon was done automatically every four years.

However, since April 1990, a decree from the state ministry of
administrative reforms stipulated that promotions could only be
granted if a civil servant was able to obtain a certain number of
credit points.

During the hearing, legislators also lamented on the uneven
distribution of teachers across the country. They questioned the
transferring teachers from a teaching job to an administrative
one.

"According to official reports, number wise, Indonesia has
enough teachers. However, it must be admitted that in practice,
they are not well-distributed," Soenarko said.

He said that the uneven distribution of teachers was due
mainly to the fact that there are teachers who do not teach but
hold administrative jobs instead. Teachers may also seem to be
lacking, he said, because of their unexpected movements, such as
when a female teacher has to move from one town to where her
spouse works.

Soenarko pointed out that assessing these problems and doing
evaluations were not the responsibility of the agency but of the
ministry or local government. (pwn)