Teachers in need of better training
Leony Aurora, Jakarta
Teachers should receive training on creative teaching methods, skills that will be much needed in implementing a competence- based curriculum, says an education observer.
The director of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), Susan Stengel, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday that after observing a number of public and private schools in the capital, she concluded that teachers did not have sufficient experience and resources to teach the new curriculum, which will come into effect in the 2004/2005 academic year.
Unlike the current curriculum, which requires students to learn specified chunks of knowledge, the competence-based curriculum will require students to understand more about the concepts rather than just memorizing the information.
"For example, they will have to describe what a hero is instead of just memorizing the definition," she said.
In an attempt to boost teachers' creativity in presenting the new material, the FEE has conducted a series of training courses for teachers from the kindergarten to senior high school levels at the Al-Izhar school in Pondok Labu, South Jakarta.
Most of the around 120 participants are teachers from Al- Izhar. Sixty-nine teachers from other schools, both private and state-owned, have taken part at least once in the 13 courses held so far. The last course for the 2003/2004 academic year was completed last Saturday.
Stengel said she hoped the teachers could become trainers to help their colleagues develop the necessary skills.
The FEE has also conducted three half-day training courses at the SDN 7 and SDN 9 state elementary schools in Cilandak, South Jakarta.
"They (the teachers) were very enthusiastic and really want to apply the methods they have learnt," she said. However, it was difficult for them to develop the right methods for other subjects due to a lack of resources.
An official with the Jakarta Elementary Education Agency, Iing Ahmad Mumkin, said that although the Ministry of National Education had yet to officially announce that the competence- based curriculum would be used in the next academic year, the agency has already made the necessary preparations.
"We have held meetings with head teachers to inform them about the new curriculum," he said. The school officials were expected to explain about the curriculum to their subordinates and teachers.
At the national level, the education ministry has previously said it would provide additional funding in 2005 for teacher training. This year, the ministry plans to recruit 110,500 new teachers.