Wanted: Teachers to work in Tangerang

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang

Tangerang regency is now in dire need of more teachers to fill positions that will be left vacant by about 3,000 teachers in the next three to five years, says a regency official.

Head of the regency's education agency Mas Iman Kusnandar said on Saturday that half of the nearly 6,000 teachers at elementary, junior high schools and high schools would turn 55 soon, the retirement age for civil servants.

"The number doesn't include hundreds of teachers who have retired over the past few years ... but the central government has only assigned 75 new teachers each year to replace them," he told The Jakarta Post.

"The possible lack of school teachers is a real concern because we fear it could, in turn, reduce the quality of education in Tangerang."

According to Iman, Regent Ismet Iskandar had asked the central government to assign 1,000 more teachers each year to the regency over the next three years, but so far only 300 had been promised.

Iman explained that the ideal number of teachers for the 974 elementary schools in the regency should be 8,766, where each school could have eight teachers and a principal.

"Right now we only have 3,500 teachers for the elementary schools. It means that we still need 5,266 more teachers to meet the ideal number, not to mention how many more we need to teach at junior highs and high schools," he added.

The Tangerang municipality administration will pay for 48 percent of the regency's Rp 568 billion budget this year for education development. The regency administration also committed money to improving education by renovating school buildings and increasing the teachers' monthly salary.