Santa Ursula strives to live up to reputation

Santa Ursula strives to live up to reputation

JAKARTA (JP): She is 55 and she watches Satria Baja Hitam and Sailor Moon, the two most popular Indonesian cartoons on TV.

"I watch the children's favorite TV programs to enable me to understand them better," school teacher Loes Tan Tjin Tjoe said.

Loes Tan has been teaching at the elementary school SD Santa Ursula for 34 years. She believes it is necessary for teachers to follow the trends so they can communicate better with their students.

"Some of my students drew Satria Baja Hitam. Another student arranged her hair like Sailor Moon. It's good to know these characters, so I can understand what the students are doing," she explained.

As an experienced teacher, Loes Tan has observed a change in students' attitudes. In the 1960s and 1970s, her students were quiet and passive. Today, they are much more active and critical.

"If I make an error when writing or reading, for example, they will protest right away. In the past, they said nothing. Now, my students will dare to remind me if one of the buttons on my shirt is loose," she said.

"Because they are more critical, the students are smarter. But both the boys and the girls are also clever at cheating. Even my second grade students dare to cheat," she complained.

A combination of patience and discipline is the key to teaching and handling students, according to Loes Tan. She doesn't hesitate to flick a student's ear if they are really naughty. She isn't hard on every student because some of them are so delicate that just one whack can make them sick.

Discipline is apparently among the most important elements of SD Santa Ursula education. It is exercised to maintain quality and to shape the students.

"We believe that discipline must come first," Principal G. Darmadi said of the catholic elementary school.

Best

SD Santa Ursula is one of the best and oldest schools in town. It's 12 classrooms hold 598 students and 18 teachers. The teachers have taught at the school for an average of 20 years.

Although many parents want to send their children to the school, SD Santa Ursula can not expand because its school building is categorized as a historical structure which must be preserved, Darmadi said.

Built in 1909 by catholic missionaries, the school building is located next to the Grand Post Office across from Pasar Baru mall in Central Jakarta.

This year, 235 children applied to SD Santa Ursula, but only 96 were accepted.

"I think there is a psychological tie between SD Santa Ursula alumnae and the school. Many graduates want to send their children," Darmadi said.

But of course, the quality of education is what draws most people to the school.

SD Santa Ursula follows government curriculum and doesn't specialize in any subject.

In addition to the basic government material, however, SD Santa Ursula teaches the students things they consider necessary.

Between the end of the 1970s and 1992, mathematics, the combination of space and numbers, replaced calculation (berhitung) in elementary schools. SD Santa Ursula, however, continued to teach the old material. Darmadi said that they continued to teach calculation and used the old calculation books in addition to the new mathematics texts.

"Calculation is better because you can apply it in daily life," he said.

Mathematics, or so-called "modern mathematics", was introduced to Indonesian schools at the end of the 1970s. Education experts believed that the combination of space and numbers was better than calculation, which didn't have a space element. But the policy was reviewed and three years ago all elementary schools began to focus on improved calculation curriculum.

SD Santa Ursula students didn't have any difficulty learning mathematics, which is said to be the hardest subject in Indonesia. The school team came first at the national mathematics contest in 1991/1992, just before mathematics was dropped.

Freedom

Apart of the compulsory subjects, schools have the freedom to teach other subjects, including English, computer science and arts.

SD Santa Ursula has chosen computers because, "in general, our students are taking English private courses," Darmadi said.

Computer science is compulsory for fourth graders, but it is also offered as an extra-curricular activity, along with dancing, karate and badminton, for other students who are interested in the subject.

SD Santa Ursula, as well as the Santa Ursula junior and senior high schools, is managed by the Satya Bhakti Foundation.

SD Santa Ursula used to be a girls' school, but early in the 1970s it began accepting boys. The high schools, however, remain exclusively for girls. The foundation contends that it is better to separate young women and men.

Like other private schools, SD Santa Ursula charges more tuition than the state schools. Once a student is accepted, the parents pay between several hundred thousand to millions of rupiah, depending on their financial situation.

Even though the tuition is higher, the teachers don't make much more money, according to Darmadi.

"Money is not why we teach," he asserted.

A new teacher at SD Santa Ursula gets less than Rp 200,000 a month. As an incentive they get a transportation allowance and a special bonus once every five years.

Darmadi and 11 other senior teachers are actually civil servants, so their basic salaries aren't much higher than other state employees.

"The difference is that we're paid on the first day of every month. Teachers at state schools aren't paid until the fifth of the month," he said.

There are no deductions either, like the ones some state employees have complained about.

"I even get cloth for uniforms and a tailoring allowance as well," he gushed.

Darmadi and his colleagues have been state employees since 1978. Teachers of government-subsidized private schools were then given the opportunity to become civil servants.

Darmadi started his teaching career after graduating from the Teaching High School in 1976. He later went to the Christian University of Indonesia in 1983 to major in education psychology. After finishing his studies, he was assigned to lead SD Santa Ursula.

"The school principal used to be a nun. I am the first layman and also the first man to head the school. I don't know why they appointed me," he said.

He added that all the teachers used to be women, but today there are two other male teachers at the school.

"Education is not only a women's world," he stressed. Loes Tan would probably agree. (sim)