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)