West Java struggles with decade-long teacher crisis

West Java struggles with decade-long teacher crisis

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

West Java, a large province closest to the capital, Jakarta,
has hidden its decade-long teacher crisis behind its achievements
in the field of education.

The province is known nationwide for its prestigious
Padjadjaran and Parahyangan Universities, the Bandung Institute
of Technology and Bogor Institute of Agriculture, but almost all
elementary and high schools in remote areas of the province are
short of a total of 60,000 teaching staff.

It is no longer surprising to see that a teacher has to teach
two classes or more in elementary and high schools in remote
subdistricts in Cianjur, Sukabumi, Indramayu, Majalengka, Depok
and Bogor.

Iim Wasliman, deputy chief of the West Java education and
culture office, said the province was lacking around 60,000
teaching staff for around 24,000 elementary schools and 40,000
others for 12,000 junior and high schools.

"The teacher shortages were felt over the last eight years
after the provincial administration had a zero-growth policy on
civil servant recruitment, while 3,000 to 4,000 teachers annually
have reached the mandatory pension age and there has been no new
recruitment to replace them," he said.

Wasliman conceded the teacher shortages had resulted in a
serious negative impact on the quality both of school graduates
and human resources in the province.

"For example, many elementary school graduates in rural areas
in many subdistricts could not read fluently and the quality of
high school graduates in the province is really below the
national standard," he said.

Wasliman said his office had several times raised the
education issue at the coordination meeting with the governor and
with universities that were running education and teaching
programs, but so far no comprehensive solution has been found to
address the problem.

Many state- and private-run universities running teaching
programs have encouraged their graduates to fill vacancies in
schools that are short of teaching staff but many were not
interested in the offer, or did not continue at their schools
because besides being lowly paid, they were placed in schools
remote from urban areas.

Many teachers do not feel at home at their place of assignment
because of their temporary status and half pay, he said,
"And most teachers who are employed under such nonpermanent
status in rural and remote areas, have left their work place and
sought other jobs at factories in urban areas."

"Teaching is a noble and respectable profession but we have
not yet given it the respect it deserves," he said.

Chairman of the West Java legislature's Commission E on
education and labor affairs Euchiyat Noor said the legislature
had several times asked the provincial administration to rescind
the zero-growth policy and set up a joint team to upgrade the
status of honorary teachers in all state-run schools to
permanent. They would have more certainty under this arrangement,
but, so far, the provincial administration had been faced with
financial problems in this matter.

"So far, the nonpermanent teachers have helped the education
programs in elementary and high schools but we have failed to
acknowledge their dedication and to improve their conditions of
service," he said when receiving 300 nonpermanent teachers here
recently.

Ruchyat concurred and said the government should launch an
education program in urban areas to improve the awareness of
local people of the importance of education.

"Many people could not afford to send their children to
schools because of financial problems, resulting in a low quality
of human resources and a high illiteracy rate in the province,"
he said.

He cited, for example, that only one in three school-age
children in remote areas in Indramayu, Sukabumi and Cianjur in
the province went to school and that was why numerous people,
mostly unskilled, from the regencies went abroad to seek
employment.

According to him, the provincial government should ask for
increased funding from the central government to finance the
recruitment of more new teachers and to upgrade all the
nonpermanent teaching staff in order to cope with the teacher
shortages.

"We should feel ashamed because the province has many
prestigious universities, institutes and academies, but local
people cannot benefit from them because of financial
difficulties," he said.