Minister Abdul Mu'ti Highlights Teachers Who Frequently Attend Training
Minister of Basic Education and Secondary Education Abdul Mu’ti has criticised the practice of a number of teachers who frequently become ‘specialists’ in central government training, but do not disseminate the knowledge gained to their colleagues.
According to Mu’ti, this condition poses one of the challenges in implementing the concept of deep learning in schools. He noted that the government’s training model relies on a cascade mechanism, whereby teachers who have been trained then train other teachers in their schools or communities.
‘Many teachers are trained for themselves. There are times when a teacher who is a specialist also attends central activities. They are the ones who travel,’ Mu’ti said when he met reporters at his official residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Saturday, 7 March 2026.
He described the phenomenon informally as the ‘4L’ term. ‘Deep learning training is for those people, counselling training (BK) for them, so it becomes 4L: you again, you again,’ he joked.
To address the problem of suboptimal cascading, the ministry has begun implementing a new policy related to teacher training. Mu’ti said training certificates will no longer be automatically awarded to participants. New teachers will receive certificates only after proving they have cascaded the training to other teachers. ‘We are correcting this so that there is cascading. A training certificate is awarded if they have carried out cascading and there is evidence,’ he said.
Mu’ti contended that improving teacher quality is the key to the success of education reform. He argued that no matter how advanced the educational technology used, results will not be optimal without raising teacher competencies.
He also noted that some teachers still find it difficult to leave the old system and feel content with their current abilities. Yet the world of education continues to change, making ongoing professional development a necessity.
Therefore, the ministry is encouraging various teacher training programmes to be conducted directly and through teacher learning communities in the regions. ‘The world is very dynamic and continuous professional development must indeed be carried out,’ Mu’ti added.
Mu’ti explained that the implementation of deep learning is still proceeding gradually. The process begins with training core/lead teachers, who are expected to disseminate knowledge to other teachers through forums such as Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran (MGMP).
In addition to teacher training, the government is preparing model schools that will implement the deep learning approach in full from the 2026–2027 academic year. However, he said, the process will take a long time because the programme targets teachers across many subjects.