Will teacher's bill improve quality of education?

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.