Wanted: Teachers to work in Tangerang

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.