... While teachers say the problems go much deeper

JAKARTA (JP): The fact that there is little hope for a better educated generation as long as teachers are severely underpaid and lack proper training resurfaces every time there is a change in the education system.

Tunggul Siagian, manager of the private PSKD Christian school group, stressed that the bottom line to any change of curriculum is "whether it is a help or burden to teachers."

"A change in curriculum has nothing to do with improved quality of education," he added. In a milder tone, the Director General of Basic and Intermediary Education, Zainal Arifin Achmady, acknowledged that "a program only has significance when a teacher gives it meaning."

The unwillingness of the government and the public to take responsibility and invest more in education, especially in public schools, is the main reason for the current condition of education Tunggul said.

Indonesia has the lowest expenditure on education in Southeast Asia. However, the current Five Year National Development Plan, which started in April, has allotted an annual amount of Rp 4.06 trillion to education which is 37.9 percent higher than the previous Five-year plan.

Illustrating the lack of responsibility for public education, Tunggul lashed out at "too expensive" private schools like the Pelita Harapan school in Tangerang, which employs foreign teachers. Such schools, he says, are "a tool of stratification" among rich and poor families.

Even Indonesia's middle class, he noted, cannot achieve the kind of education they desire because it is too expensive.

Expensive private schools, Tunggul said, weakens the old belief that "schools are a tool of national unity, that they do not seek profit and do not refuse students because of their financial circumstances."

At least criticism of the quality of teachers has encouraged a new policy from the Ministry of Education and Culture. They have ruled that elementary school teachers should not be taught by graduates of the senior teaching schools (SPG), which are on par to senior high schools.

Those who finished in 1989 will be the last generation of SPG graduates. State and private teaching college (IKIP) diploma graduates will take their place in the future and hopefully fill the need for at least 30,000 teachers in remote areas.

But officials have found this almost impossible.

Moerdjito, the head of the curriculum section under the Director of Basic Education, believes the Ministry's practice of recruiting teachers from their own areas has proved more reliable than the diploma graduates.

"Although he or she may be less trained, a teacher from Trenggalek, Central Java, for instance, will not be reluctant to be sent to teach in the coastal area not too far from the teacher's native home."

On the other hand one cannot expect, Moerdjito continued, that an IKIP graduate from the town of Blitar, Central Java, who has invested at least Rp 1 million in the diploma program, will be willing to be sent to a remote area where he will earn the novice civil servant salary.

Ido Suprayudi, another teacher from Sukabumi, says given the new policy on IKIP graduates, the remaining 1989 graduates of the teaching high schools have not been appointed as civil servants and therefore are still on a contract payment basis.

Suwawan, a third grade teacher in Tangerang, is one of these teachers.

"I'm confused, as of this year the Ministry is only scheduled to appoint graduates from 1986, so I may still have to wait another three years," he said while working on a housing project during the semester vacation.

In anticipation of the higher quality required of teachers, Suwawan has enrolled in night courses at the private Muhammadiyah IKIP teaching school for a diploma in teaching religion.

He and his wife have opted to postpone having a child until he completes the Rp 800,000 course.

"I don't think I can really support a family yet," he lamented, citing his monthly income of under Rp 100,000 from teaching at two schools.

Asked why he did not take the diploma program required by the government, he answered that he could only afford to take night classes.

"The diploma program at the college is only in the daytime, so I wouldn't be able to seek additional income," Suwawan said.

He is lucky to be able to set aside money for further study unlike some older teachers with families.

To save the daily transportation cost of Rp 3,000, a teacher from Cireunghas, Sukabumi, who requested anonymity walks the ten kilometers to and from school. He also said his children are going to new schools this semester for which there are no allowances.

Teachers in remote areas also cannot expect any pay for private lessons, he added.

Heroes

A headmaster in Ambon stressed that although teachers on the government's payroll fare better because of their steady income, they don't receive a living allowance, making life harder for teachers in expensive areas.

"For a simple family meal you need Rp 10,000 in Ambon, twice the cost in Jakarta," Izaak Angloarmase said during a break at the Congress of the Indonesian Teacher's Association held here earlier this month.

It is "bloody nonsense," Tunggul blurts out in English, "that Indonesian teachers are considered sacred and praised as heroes for their willingness to sacrifice themselves."

Teaching, he added, must be treated like any other profession and paid accordingly, "so that the public can rightfully demand value for their money."

He pointed out that the amount of poor quality teachers is due to the fact that those who enter the profession do so "because there is nothing else to do...teaching loses out in the competition with other professions."

In the past 15 years, he observes, teaching has increasingly become the profession of women, which is considered acceptable in society only if they receive a low income, and those from "minus" areas - migrants from Banyumas and Pacitan in Java, Batak migrants from Sumatra, and those from Sumba, Sabu and other areas in East Indonesia.

Dualism

Besides low pay, state elementary teachers and managers are troubled by the coordination between the Ministry's directorate of basic education and the Agency of Teaching and Equipment (Dinas P dan P).

In theory, the Agency is only meant to help with facilitating elementary schools, but teachers and managers say this "dualism" severely affects school management.

"We have proof of corruption," said an anonymous teacher from Sukabumi. "My colleague reported it to the Ministry and he was rebuked for lack of loyalty to the civil servant corps."

The teacher said the fact that they are not free to spend operational costs and are obliged to pay for whatever the Agency provides is troublesome.

"At the Agency paint can be three times as expensive as in local stores, and there are times when they provide things we don't need," the source said, citing books on Balinese dance which is not taught in Sukabumi schools. (anr)