... While teachers say the problems go much deeper

... 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)