Teachers' salaries

Teachers' salaries

From Republika

The state of the education sector is truly saddening. What has happened in this sector, particularly in large cities, is cause for great concern. Before we have even finished dealing with student brawls new cases surface i.e. the falsification of examination results in Bandung; and in Malang, East Java, the leakage of examination papers for university graduates.

All this has bewildered us and made us wonder why such incidents occur in the educational sector.

There may be many answers to this question, all with scientific explanations. But none can be expected to be of any use in finding the best solution to the problem.

Perhaps the solution lies in our teachers. Teachers' salaries should be raised considerably so that they can focus their attention on education. Ironically, however, it is common practice that a candidate must pay a certain amount of money if he or she wants his or her appointment as a teacher processed quickly. And teachers' welfare is something that has to be struggled for, again more often than not with the involvement of illegal fees.

The new school year could bring a fortune to teachers. Unfair play may occur, money is required from new entrants, and admittance of unlawful pupils can be made possible with certain payments. Students are aware of this kind of malpractice and as a consequence they also tend to resort to underhanded ways of achieving their goals. The employment of someone else to sit for a student's university entrance exam, trading of academic papers, fake diplomas, are often disclosed in the media.

We can only hope that such negative practices will disappear.

G. WIDRO MANSOER

Tangerang, West Java