Teachers and Self Development

As the ones who spearhead the efforts to advance the nation’s intelligence in the face of Industry 4.0, teachers have immense responsibility.

KOMPAS/ZULKARNAINI

Maria Ulfa, who is working on a contract basis at the SD 72 state elementary school in Banda Aceh, Aceh, is teaching her students. Maria has been employed as a contract teacher since 2018. The salary she gets is Rp 230,000 per month.

Thus far, teachers have also been burdened with wieldy administrative work and a curriculum that works against achieving the goal of advancing the nation’s intelligence. Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim has exposed several concrete problems faced by teachers that must be resolved together.

According to Nadiem, the wieldy administrative work and curriculum has closed the doors of “adventure” and led to the lack of teachers’ confidence to innovate. “Teachers’ capacity determines the fulfilling of targets of human resources development. Improving teachers’ qualifications through pre-service and in-service professional training is the government’s priority,” Nadiem said in his National Teachers’ Day commemoration ceremony speech (Kompas, Tuesday, 26/11/2019).