Anita Rachman – At least 590,000 contract teachers working in state schools across the nation will not receive any guarantee of being awarded status as permanent employees, even though the Ministry of Education plans to add 737,000 new teachers, a ministry official said on Monday.
The ministry's director general for improvement of educators, Baedowi, said contract teachers wanting to be promoted to full-time civil servants needed to take the required tests, as is the case with any other profession, and that the ministry would only recruit those who met the required qualifications, including holding a bachelors degree.
"The authority to promote contract teachers to full-time employees actually falls under the discretion of the local governments," Baedowi said. "But we supply the local governments with guidelines."
Giri Suryatmana, secretary of the directorate, said an open recruitment process would be used to fill the vacancies and that all applicants would be screened fairly.
"There will be no special treatment for contract teachers," Giri said, adding that it would be difficult for local administrations to directly promote contract workers as they were not necessarily employed under existing regulations and now may not be qualified.
Both Giri and Baedowi noted that many contract teachers were employed as a result of having close relationships with the principals at schools, and that some schools "already have enough teachers."
"We don't want [contract teachers] to abuse the open recruitment process and fast-track themselves. They should meet qualifications first," Giri said.
He said that in the meantime, the government would attempt to stop substandard recruitment procedures, including those linked to nepotism.
Baedowi said the ministry would only add staff to schools that really needed new teachers.
"For example, if a school particularly needs a teacher with specific qualifications then it may recruit the teacher on a contract basis provided the teacher meets all the necessary qualifications, including having a degree," he said.
Sulistyo, head of the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI), said that the government should understand that the only hope for contract teachers to make a decent living was to be promoted to become civil servants. According to PGRI records, there are hundreds of thousands of teachers who have worked for years but still only earn as little as Rp 100,000 ($10.50) per month.
He admitted that some of the teachers were recruited via substandard procedures but said the government should not only focus on that aspect alone.
"Where have these contract teachers been? They have been in the system for years. And now the government comes in and says, you must meet standards!" Sulistyo said.
Sulistyo said that some of the teachers have been teaching for two decades and may not be able to meet the ministry's standards today because when they were recruited, the regulations were different.
He said that even though the government might not be able to give contract teachers a guarantee of promotion, it should nevertheless protect them, at least by offering better pay for contract teachers.
"Factory laborers have regional minimum wage set for them. But why do teachers, people who educate the nation's new generation, not have [remuneration] standards set for them?"
Last week, Achmad Dasuki, director of the teaching profession at the ministry, said that over the next five years, 737,000 new teachers would be added to the civil service.
However, in what seemed like a contradiction of the open recruitment process, Achmad said that 300,000 positions would be filled from among new graduates while the remaining 437,000 posts would be filled by contract teachers currently working within administrations nationwide.
"But starting in 2011, candidates without a full teaching qualifications will not be appointed as permanent teachers," Achmad said.