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.