Where do we go with a rigid school curriculum?

Where do we go with a rigid school curriculum?

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): I feel that I am fairly familiar with most
complaints made by Indonesian teachers about their profession.
They correctly feel that they are overburdened, underpaid,
belittled by other professions, and that in many cases they are
incapable of commanding respect from students and parents.

But none of the complaints were so strongly and touchingly
voiced as the one I heard recently at a seminar in which I was
one of the speakers.

This particular teacher was no ordinary teacher. He neither
looked underpaid nor overburdened. He was employed at a fairly
well-to-do private school, and his salary was much better than
that usually paid to ordinary teachers in ordinary government
schools.

Though a retired colonel, he was a teacher by training and
inclination. After becoming a qualified high school teacher in
1961, he joined the Armed Forces and climbed to the rank of
colonel.

Somewhere along the line he had the opportunity to continue
his formal education at university, and earned his S-I degree
(the Indonesian equivalent of first degree).

Three years before reaching mandatory retirement age, he
changed direction and took up more formal study to work towards
an advanced degree in management.

After retirement he reentered the teaching profession, joining
the fairly affluent private school system.

You can see from this vitae, that this 58 years old was no
ordinary teacher. Yet he complained just like ordinary teachers
do.

Was he greedy? Far from it. He was a person with a very
generous heart. I know this from various statements he made
during a conversation we had. It also happened that I supervised
his final exam back in 1961.

It was not money that discouraged, frustrated and made him
unhappy. It was the blatant transgression of norms and values.

It was the disrespect displayed by persons with power towards
education as an institution for upholding normative standards
that made him angry.

"I have been trying to teach my students to respect values,
but these very values are blatantly transgressed in our daily
lives. So, we in the teaching profession have become the laughing
stock of those who manipulate norms and violate values for a
living.

"The teaching profession has been degraded into a job without
sufficient financial remuneration, without social status, and
without self-respect. It has become a job fitting only for third-
rate minds. And nobody is doing anything sincere to correct this
situation -- not the government, not the profession itself. There
is only rhetoric.

"What is the prospect of education and the teaching profession
in this country? What is the prospect of my grandchildren?" he
stormed.

He has three sons, two of which are married. The eldest
married a Dutch woman and the second married a Chinese-
Indonesian. I found his concern for the future of his
grandchildren understandable.

"Whenever I make this complaint, there is always somebody who
tells me that it is all because we are still living in a
transitional society. But does a transitional period have to be
characterized by the blatant violation of norms, of decency? What
are we moving away from, and what kind of society are we moving
towards?" he asked.

I looked at the moderator. He seemed to be carried away by
this cry from the heart (cri de coeur), and seemed to have no
intention of stopping this exposition of anger and frustration.

I began to think of how to respond without causing him further
disappointment, or making him lose his last remnants of hope and
professional pride.

"I have one more grievance", he continued.

"How can we teachers guide the younger generation towards
better work ethos, towards greater democratic spirit, greater
competitive capability, and prod them to become more creative and
more innovative, if we remain constrained by this rigid national
curriculum which allows no pedagogical and didactical
interpretations?

"We are not machines. We are human beings with reason and
feelings. We cannot act against our reason and against our
conscience without experiencing guilt and remorse within
ourselves. How much guilt and remorse can one shoulder in his or
her life?" he implored.

Here he paused in effort to control his emotions. The audience
of 200 persons was completely silent. After what seemed ages, he
closed his message.

"I hope you can help us. Guide us through this insane
situation so that we don't lose our sanity."

I was deeply touched and did not know what to say. While
searching for ideas, I started to compose a response which I
hoped would at least sound sympathetic and free of disgusting
cliches.

"I am afraid I cannot give you any guidance in this case. I
didn't last in the teaching profession myself. I had the
opportunity to change my occupation, and I grabbed the chance.
You could say that I deserted the teaching profession. I admire
your capability to endure all the pain and suffering that are
inherent in the teaching profession nowadays, and I highly
respect your determination to stay in the profession.

"I think you have found the solution already. Your decision to
stay and continue to fight for a saner situation is the solution.
Whether you realize it or not, you are leading others and being
accompanied by many others in your journey toward a healthier
situation in education.

"In the end, the most decisive factor in any national struggle
to bring about educational reforms which truly respond to the
calls of the time is the moral courage of teachers, and their
perseverance in upholding the basic values supporting a morally
accountable educational practice. You have given our nation the
solution. The other important factor needed is time.

"So I wish you well, and hope you have the patience to wait
for the outcome of your professional stride. I am quite sure,
after witnessing the spirit prevailing in this discussion, that
we will succeed in our national effort to create an educational
climate capable of stimulating and inspiring the younger
generation to become better Indonesians. May God always guide you
in your noble efforts."

I do not know how well these words were received by this
teacher and his colleagues. I can only hope that I said the right
words in the right tone.