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)