No integrated and sustainable masterplan for national teacher procurement exists, despite the professionalization of teachers through Law No. 14/2005 on teachers and lecturers.
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Kompas/Riza Fathoni
Ar-Rahmaniyah Teaching and Education University students attend class at their campus in Citayam, Depok, West Java, on Tuesday (13/3).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – No integrated and sustainable masterplan for national teacher procurement exists, despite the professionalization of teachers through Law No. 14/2005 on teachers and lecturers.
The number of prospective teachers with undergraduate degrees continues to rise. The appointment system for new teachers with professional teaching certification at teacher training colleges remains unreliable. This is because the quality of teacher training college graduates is still lacking.
Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) chairwoman Unifah Rosyidi said problems in national education were often dealt with through patchwork solutions. “The nation must create a grand design involving all stakeholders with clear targets and assured sustainability, no matter who is in charge of the government,” she said in Jakarta on Tuesday (13/3/2018).
The Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry’s director general for learning and student affairs Intan Ahmad said new professional teachers were prepared through the teacher professional education (PPG) program. Participants undergo a strict selection process and only qualified teacher training colleges (LPTK) can organize the program. “The effort to provide qualified new teachers is focused on the PPG program,” Intan said.
The Culture and Education Ministry’s acting director general for teachers and education professionals Hamid Muhammad said the number of certified teachers graduating from the PPG program was still inadequate. Currently, the nation needs 900,000 new teachers. The three million teachers currently employed nationwide will continue to decrease as senior teachers retire and due to the moratorium on civil service recruitment imposed in 2012. Every year, 50,000 teachers retire.
“The availability of teachers has been discussed. As a user, the Culture and Education Ministry needs professional teachers. However, it is often difficult to meet this demand. The root cause is a limited budget,” Hamid said.
Indonesian Private Teacher Training Colleges Association (ALPTKSI) secretary general Muhdi said the government had never had a blueprint for teacher procurement. Such a condition threatens the quality of Indonesia’s education in the future.
“Teachers are at the center of education quality improvement. Thus far, the government has always been busy implementing a new curriculum each year without any regard for the number of available teachers and those who will soon retire,” said Muhdi, who also serves as the rector of Semarang Indonesian Teachers Association University (UPGRIS).
According to Muhdi, the government must be transparent in providing data on teacher availability. The information that the country needs 998,000 new teachers was only released by the Culture and Education Ministry in late 2017. This is despite previous information stating that the country already had three million teachers.
UPGRIS research shows that around 256,000 teachers will retire between 2018 and 2020. The number of retiring teachers is expected to rise from 62,759 in 2019 to 72,976 in 2020. The number is expected to peak in 2023.
Priority
Teacher availability, including data on the teacher shortage and strategic solutions, must be mapped.
Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Asman Abnur said the government was pushing for a zero-percent or even negative civil servant growth, as 50 percent of regional budgets in 134 cities and regencies were used to pay salaries. However, teachers remain a priority in the government’s procurement of new civil servants.
National Civil Service Agency (BKN) chair Bima Haria Wibisana said the core problem was actually about teacher distribution rather than a shortage. Some regions have a surplus of teachers while other regions suffer from a teacher shortage. He said redistribution of teachers would be necessary.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said at his office in Jakarta on Tuesday that the government was looking into the poor quality of LPTKs and the high prevalence of LPTKs with “C” accreditation. Not all graduates of teacher training colleges can be teachers. “We should not hand out teacher certificates willy-nilly. There is a process that must be adhered to,” Kalla said.
Yogyakarta State University professor of education Rochmat Wahab said there should be an effort to improve the quality of substandard LPTKs. If substandard education science graduates teach children at school, the quality of education and society as a whole will suffer.
