Ministry, PGRI draft bill on teachers' rights, obligations
Ministry, PGRI draft bill on teachers' rights, obligations
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of National Education along with
the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI) and related parties are
drafting a bill on teachers' protection, rights and obligations
especially for those serving their duties in disputed areas,
officials said.
"Teachers have been left out for decades and no sufficient
effort has been made to lift their wellbeing," PGRI chairman
Muhammad Surya said in a media briefing on the commemoration of
Teacher's Day and the 55th anniversary of PGRI which falls on
Saturday.
"We first realized the urgent need to set this law last year,
when there was outbreaks of violence in several parts of the
country.
"Thousands of teachers have been left stranded in disputed
regions such as the Malukus, Irian Jaya and Aceh," Surya said.
In Aceh, for example, at least 100 teachers, most of them
elementary teachers, were either killed or abducted over the past
couple of years, Surya said.
"In some cases in Aceh -- where the spirit of separatism still
runs high -- they still had to teach Indonesian nationalism, our
anthem and about the national red-and-white flag. Those teachers
ended up being kidnapped or killed by unidentified gunmen," Surya
said.
Similar incidences also happened in Irian Jaya where at least
366 teachers from elementary and secondary education institutions
requested strongly to be transferred from the town of Wamena, he
said.
"The number does not include the hundreds of school
supervisors. In the recent Wamena riot, at least three teachers
were killed," Surya said, adding that the situation had become
even worse in the Malukus after his office was no longer able to
establish contact with its colleagues there.
According to him, none of these severe conditions have ever
been anticipated since there are no regulations for the
arrangement of the safety, welfare or transfer of these teachers.
Therefore, the ministry and PGRI is now working on the
philosophical basis of a protection bill draft, Surya added.
"If a soldier dies, there is a motto 'one dies, 1,000 births
to come' but if one good teacher dies, 1,000 pupils will be
abandoned. Few people realize this," he said.
In a bid to cope with the problem, the ministry is working on
an alternative school project in cooperation with a non-
governmental organization in Maluku.
"As for Irian Jaya and Aceh, we are asking the government to
allow us to raise the quota of teachers. We hire available
contract teachers as only a few are willing to be stationed
there," Director General for Primary and Secondary Education
Indra Djati Sidi said.
Earlier in the day, Indra Djati revealed that the ministry
will maintain the minimum service standard (SPM) for basic,
elementary and secondary level education in the wake of regional
autonomy next year.
"It is dangerous to let the regions loose to run the education
system as the gap between the rich and poor provinces will be
much wider.
"The minimum standard will be set nation-wide which would
cover the curriculum, competition standard, general requirement
for school entry every year, standard facilities from books to
learning devices, uniforms and the school organization units as
well as the number of functional and administrative staffs. The
curriculum will also be divided for children with extraordinary,
smart or normal capabilities," Indra Djati said.
Authorities at the regencies, however, are free to put their
local content in the curriculum.
As for the offer from East Timorese authorities for Indonesian
teachers to work there with a minimum fee of US$128 per month,
both Indra Djati and Surya said that so many things have to be
fixed first. "It's a long shot and it depends on both country's
agreement." (edt)