Schools close while teachers take to streets

BOGOR, West Java (JP): Most state schools in Bogor and Sukabumi were closed on Monday as teachers took to the streets to protest the government's pay policy in what was seen as a prelude to a nationwide strike planned by teachers this week.

At least 3,000 members of the local chapters of the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI) marched from Sempur sport field to the Bogor legislative council demanding a 300 percent hike in their salaries.

The teachers from elementary, junior and senior high schools in Bogor and nearby Sukabumi also demanded higher structural allowances, in line with the government's decision to increase such allowances for top civil servants by up to 9,000 percent beginning in April.

The spokesman for the group, Sahiri Hernawan, said the teachers should not be treated like government workers. "Teachers should be paid as teachers, not as civil servants .... Our salaries must be managed under an educational paradigm, not the bureaucracy."

In Bantul, near Yogyakarta, more than 1,000 elementary school teachers gathered outside the regency office to demand a 100 percent increase in their salaries and the cancellation of the hike in structural allowances for top government employees.

Taking part in the three-hour protest were teachers from Bantul and nearby regencies, all from the local PGRI chapters.

Surtini, a teacher at Pandansimo elementary school, said she and her husband could barely make ends meet on their current salaries. "I've been teaching for 20 years and I only get Rp 536,000 (US$71) a month," she said.

The authorities in Bogor and Bantul promised the teachers they would raise their concerns with the central government in Jakarta.

The two protests were seen as a foretaste of things to come, as teachers have threatened a nationwide strike from Thursday to Saturday to press their demands.

The threatened strike comes as schools are preparing their students to take national final examinations scheduled for May.

The government appealed to teachers on Monday to reconsider the strike, promising to look into their demands.

"I ask teachers across the country not to carry out the threat because it will affect students," Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin said on Monday.

Yahya said he took the threat of a national strike seriously, but added that the government had no plan to penalize striking teachers.

"No, I will not sanction them, but (I ask them to) please think of the students," he said.

Yahya broke ranks with President Abdurrahman Wahid, saying he did not support the government's plan to increase structural allowances for top civil servants, adding that the money would best be used to increase the salaries of teachers.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication Basri Hassanudin said teachers should trust the government's political will to improve their welfare.

"There will be further discussions on raising teachers' salaries. Please be patient and do not go on strike," he said.

Basri said teachers already had been given a 100 percent increase in their functional allowances, in addition to the 30 percent across-the-board increase in civil servants' salaries beginning on April 1.

Although the striking teachers on Monday used the PGRI banner, the union's leaders in Jakarta denied the organization was behind the planned nationwide strike.

PGRI chairman Muhammad Surya told The Jakarta Post the union did not recommend the strike and had asked teachers to air their concerns without abandoning students.

He said that teachers could, for example, prepare a package of work for students to complete in class if they were going to be absent from school for several days.

"We asked them to stage protests that would not disrupt the learning process. We only want to draw public attention to our condition. We have no intention of harming students' interests," Surya said.

Any call for a strike came from organizations other than PGRI, he said without specifying which organizations he was alluding to.

The government has doubled the functional allowance for teachers to between Rp 90,000 and Rp 140,000 a month, with the increase taking effect on April 1.

"This 100 percent hike is very insignificant," Surya said, adding that PGRI had already proposed to the government an increase in functional allowances to between Rp 150,000 and Rp 900,000.

"We only ask for better appreciation, we don't intend to burden the government. Any improvement in our salaries will benefit the general public because we are responsible for their children's education," he said. (21/44/sur/dja)