Leniency spoils pupils

I would like to comment on the article 'National Plus schools require close monitoring on Jan. 26. Two years ago, I was a teacher at an elementary National Plus school located in Tangerang, owned by a large conglomerate company. As an insider, I was so surprised to realize that the practices in this school were heavily distorted from true educational values.

The teachers were instructed by the school authority not to scold or take disciplinary action against students who had misbehaved. In the case where the children didn't do or submit their homework or projects, the teachers were told to tolerate it and extend the deadline. This is a world away from my school experience when a deadline was really that. Worse, the teachers were also told not to give students bad marks.

If a student got a score of below six, the teacher would reset the test until a six was achieved. To avoid repeated re-tests, teachers would set easier tests.

For end of semester reports, teachers were not able to give a bad report. Once, my fellow teacher gave a score of four to an extremely lazy student. The headmaster got very upset and refused to sign the semester report. The headmaster said: "Do you want your own child to get a score of four?"

Every year, almost all students pass to a higher grade. But not all of them are qualified to pass.

Some students who were autistic or dyslexia always passed. When I taught there, in my observation only one student failed, because their performance was so far below standard. Schools that are not run by true educational foundations only seek income. They set incredibly high fees, and in return they give students good scores, to make the parents happy and think that their children are smart.

ANTONIUS EKO, Jakarta