Teachers in remote village stretch the meaning of dedication
By Prapti Widinugraheni
JAKARTA (JP): From school books and electricity to motor boats and female teachers, desperate teachers living in isolated places can come up with the most unusual, but logical, requests -- especially when they have a chance to meet their "boss", Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro.
"We have a serious lack of freshwater... Is it possible to build some kind of water-filter plant at our place?" asked Rusli Pattagoa, an elementary school teacher from a small island located off Selayar Island, South Sulawesi.
Rusli was one of the 46 elementary school teachers from South Sulawesi who met with Wardiman here recently to discuss their problems -- and slip in a few requests here and there as well.
This is the fourth meeting held under the yearly program sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Culture's South Sulawesi provincial office.
Salahuddin M. Arief, head of the provincial office, said some teachers in the region had actually requested a post in remote areas, "because they knew that they might have a chance to travel to Jakarta".
During the dialog, which coincided with the 1994 National and International Teachers' Day, the teachers made various requests to Wardiman. The majority of them asked for more school books, teaching aids and other facilities.
Requests for radios, which they argued were the only means of communication with the "outside" world, and the necessary electricity to go with them, were also on top of the list.
Motorboats were also frequently mentioned. To reach the remote schools from the small subdistrict capitals, one has to ride along rivers or cross the seas, which may be as "fast" as three hours or as long as a whole day -- in good weather.
Requests for new school buildings and new tiles came from one teacher whose school was partly destroyed by a recent earthquake.
One young bachelor teaching in the Selayar regency went as far as asking for more female teachers to "accompany" him at work.
Stories like these are actually nothing new to Indonesia. With about 80 percent of the population living in rural regions and with such a vast area, it is easy to understand that many teachers in the country live in the so-called "remote areas".
Unlike urban teachers who can find almost everything they need within reach, teachers stationed in more remote areas have to make extra efforts to even reach their schools.
Is the compensation worth the efforts?
Sangkala is the principal of a remote school few kilometers away from Ujungpandang's southernmost regency of Banteang. After a long talk with The Jakarta Post describing how much he enjoyed teaching, he finally admitted that the government had not yet fulfilled its promise to give a "remote school subsidy".
Subsidy
His colleague Muhammad Amir from a village in the Bone regency said there was no problem with his salary. "It's only that we've never been given the subsidy, which adds 100 percent to our salary".
"We should have received it two years ago...but it's probably still in process," he said.
Sangkala said his salary amounts to Rp 300,000 (US$138) a month and, with various allowances, could add up to Rp 400,000.
Amir, who did not seem to complain much about his salary, did however criticize the transportation, communication and health facilities, which he said were very poor. Not to mention the lack of electricity.
These problems often caused his students to miss out on important events which would otherwise allow them to socialize more with students of other schools. "They can't participate in camping activities, sports contests and things like that because we are too far away from other schools," said Amir, whose school, located 10 kilometers from the nearest subdistrict of Cenderana, can only be reached by motorboat.
Physical obstacles are not the only problems found in teaching in remote and isolated villages. There is also the "cultural problem." Isolated societies often have an entirely "different" way of viewing schools compared to more advanced city people.
Most of the teachers from South Sulawesi who met with Wardiman were natives and were therefore quite familiar with the language and lifestyles of the areas in which they worked.
They nevertheless have to assume the role of "agents of change" if they intend to live up to the ideal standards of being a teacher, meaning that they sometimes have to break down the walls of local traditions.
"My school becomes only one-third full when harvesting time comes... There's nothing I can do about it," said Sangkala, who is the principal of the state-owned Tamabongong school.
He said that this didn't stop school activities from proceeding as usual since he and his five subordinates continue to teach regardless.
"I usually teach because there are only five teachers for six classes, but sometimes the first grade teacher helps out because they finish earlier... That's the only way we can manage to run this school," he said.