Quality in Teaching -- Who is Responsible?

Quality in Teaching -- Who is Responsible?

Andrew Vivian
Surabaya

A recent article in this newspaper about the quality of
expatriate teachers in Indonesian schools raised some important
issues, and some serious concerns, about the employment of
foreign teachers in Indonesia.

What we do need to understand is that we exist in a global
society. For this reason, in every country, there are foreign
workers who bring in their skills and knowledge.

Indonesian education is in rapid transition, from a system
designed to provide a basic education for all, to one which
greatly facilitates Indonesia's competitiveness in global
situations. The current Kurikulum 2004 is a framework for
reflecting these needs, and educational trends internationally.
It was devised in consultation with experts from outside
Indonesia.

For an organization to effectively manage change, a major
requirement is training and development of its personnel. In
education, as in a number of other areas in Indonesian society,
the expertise needed may not be available in this country.
Expatriate workers are hired in management and consulting
positions to improve organizational structures and to train and
develop their Indonesian colleagues.

There often seems to be a discrepancy between the salaries of
expatriates and their Indonesian colleagues. There are two
reasons for this perception.

First, to attract quality expatriates, salaries and benefits
must be lucrative enough to lure them from their home countries.
"If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys." The fact that salaries and
conditions paid to expatriate teachers and other professionals
tend to be far higher than that of their Indonesian counterparts
is not the fault of expatriates. Who sets the levels of pay for
Indonesian citizens at rates that allow some to become
unimaginably wealthy, while the vast majority struggle to make
ends meet?

Second, the work of expatriates is not the same as their
Indonesian colleagues. They are bringing different skills to the
organization, and are paid the "market price" for them.

It is economically unwise to pay a foreign worker a high
salary to do the same job as an Indonesian teacher. An
experienced, qualified expatriate teacher can add value to a
school by mentoring Indonesia colleagues in teaching and learning
strategies, by collaboratively planning courses and units of work
and by modeling good teaching.

In Indonesian private schools that employ expatriates, the
owners are usually Indonesians. The expatriate teachers,
presumably, carry out the wishes of their employers. If a school
hires under-qualified expatriate teachers, and allows them to
"lord it over" their Indonesian colleagues, then it is the
responsibility of the Indonesian owners to rectify the situation.

There seems to be an anomaly by which some teachers employed
in English Language schools find their way into some schools.
Someone who has done a 12-week (Teaching English as a Second
Language) TESOL course might be competent at teaching after-
school English classes, but they are unlikely to provide regular
school students with as much value as an experienced school
teacher with a university degree and professional teacher
training.

If there are schools that retain less-than-competent
expatriate teachers, then one needs to inquire into the reasons.
Perhaps the "market" (ie: Indonesian parents) prefer any
expatriate to a talented Indonesian teacher? The choices in
accepting such a situation are made by the school community.

It seems that private education is providing such a
bewildering array of choices that many parents may not be able to
keep up. The well-off (in every country) have the opinion that
government education is poor, and seek something better. What
"better" actually means is different for each family.

In such an environment, it is easy for businesspeople, with
no background in education, to set up a school that panders to
current market tastes, but, which may be educationally suspect.
Thus we see schools that heavily promote a particular religion,
or the education from another country, or instruction in a
particular language. Parents get what they want, but, ultimately,
many do not want what they get. And, what is the long-term effect
on the students?

One of the wonderful things about working in an Indonesian
school is to see the abilities and potential of Indonesian
teachers and students. There are many, many examples of
individual successes of Indonesian students and teachers, but the
education system nationally is under-resourced and Indonesian
teachers are under-paid.

Most schools do not have the resources, expertise or time
needed to provide teachers with the skills and knowledge they
need to deliver the new curriculum. However, like teachers all
over the world, the good teachers will battle on and make
something of it, and the not-so-good will close their classroom
door and continue doing what they have always done.

A growing number of schools in Indonesia are becoming known
nationally, and in the region, as good schools, because of the
quality of their human resources and their programs. Currently,
they are usually in wealthy neighborhoods, because they have the
resources to look globally for the expertise needed to develop
their Indonesian teachers with international standards of
professionalism. This includes hiring quality expatriate
teachers.

These schools can be a resource for other Indonesian schools,
by sharing expertise and providing assistance and advice. They
are a major source of talented Indonesian teachers, who have a
global perspective about education. These teachers will move out
into other schools and take their skills and knowledge with them.
Their places will be taken by other teachers, eager to make a
difference.

The writer is the principal of Ciputra High School in
Surabaya.