Will teacher's bill improve quality of education?

Paul Suparno SJ, Yogyakarta

The House of Representatives (DPR) and the government are now discussing a draft of the new teacher's law, signifying that it may well be legalized in the near future. Concerning this matter, several questions need to be addressed.

Will the law improve teachers' quality and economic welfare? Will teachers of public and private schools be treated equally, without discrimination? Will the law benefit not only the teachers of public schools but also those of private schools? Will they get the same salary if they are working at the same level or job?

According to the draft of the teacher's law, all teachers will need to have a professional certificate. In order to obtain this certificate, teachers will have to have a Stratum 1 (S1) degree (equivalent to undergraduate degree) or Diploma 4 (D4) (four-year diploma). They must also pass a teacher's certification examination.

In future, all teachers will have to have either S1 or D4 qualifications and be well-educated within their specialty in order to teach in elementary, junior and senior high schools.

Teachers will be required to possess subject competence in the areas they are teaching. Up to now in many places, appointments of unqualified teachers have been made. The effect of this practice can be devastating, with low-quality teaching producing a bad-quality education.

There are many teachers who are not qualified in their subject areas or specialty because they did not graduate at S1 or D4 level. Some have only D2 qualifications (two-year diploma program), and there are even high school graduates working as teachers.

With the new regulation, it is hoped that many teachers will upgrade their qualifications, or be required to pursue further study at university level so that the quality of teachers will improve.

In order to get certification, teachers will need to complete professional education that consists of 36 credits. During the course, they would learn about education theory and how to help students learn. The content of the education courses would consist of education theory, development psychology, philosophy, evaluation, methodology, and teaching practices, and be of one to 1.5 years duration, which is similar to other professions such as pharmacists, accountants and doctors.

There are too many teachers who are not qualified or competent to teach. During pre-service training and education, they need more time to practice teaching so that they can be more competent to enter the teaching profession and to stand in front of a class. In order to be more competent as teachers, they need to have a lot more practice in classroom situations.

After finishing the professional education, teachers would sit an examination in theory and practice. The examination has to be objective, and free from collusion and corruption. Teachers who cannot pass the exam will not get a certificate. The objectivity of the exam is very important, especially in Indonesia, where corruption and collusion have become common practices. Here, collusion and bribery should be avoided at all costs.

Accordingly, examiners and examination institutions must also be free from collusive practices. Otherwise, the quality of teachers will be worse, and the quality of education will never improve.

According to the draft of the law, the certificate will be renewed after a period of time. Six years would be an ideal time span. Teachers have to renew their professional certificate by passing an examination on the subject matter and on teaching- learning processes.

By renewing the certificate, teachers will be forced to update their knowledge at least once every six years. Six years is also a good time for teachers to think and reflect whether they still want to stay in the profession.

Teacher certification is essential to improve teacher quality in terms of their knowledge of subject matter, learning and teaching processes, and teacher conduct. As such, the government should prepare the certification process for all teachers so they can prepare themselves well. Prior to the certification, however, the government should help teachers prepare themselves by providing workshops.

Another important aspect of the law is improvement in the material well-being of teachers. Teachers will be getting higher salaries. However, as the law does not mention the exact amount, it is still not known by how much salaries will increase. Will the salary be enough for teachers to support themselves and their families?

Will teachers be better off? Whether the government will increase teachers' salaries sufficiently remains in doubt.

The next problem is related to the salaries of teachers in private schools. According to the law, teacher salaries in private schools should follow the salaries of teachers in public (government) schools. This would not be a serious problem for rich private schools. But for poor private schools, it could be very difficult.

Poor private schools often do not have enough money to pay their teachers according to government regulations, and these schools may well collapse. Teachers in private schools might also lose their enthusiasm and not work as well. Consequently, there could be a big gap between teachers in public schools and private schools.

The government should be willing to help the poor schools by subsidizing salaries of teachers. The private schools are taking part in helping the government educate the young generation, thus the government should share the burden in paying for this education.

In brief, the law provides two possibilities in preparing teachers.

First, someone can become a teacher by studying in a School of Education such as FKIP or University of Education. Here, students learn both the subject matter and education processes. At the end of the program, the students then take a professional certification examination.

Second, someone who has finished study at S1 or D4 level in non-education subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Biology, English, History can take a professional certification program of 1 or 1.5 years duration.

Hopefully, with all these changes, the quality and welfare of teachers will improve, and along with it, the quality of education in Indonesia.

The writer is the rector of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta.