Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

Yep, it's that time of year when elementary, junior and senior high school students face the dreaded Ujian Monyet, the multi-choice exams set by regional and national education authorities.

The tests set by the national Department of Education, which in its (lack of) wisdom or vision has emasculated the English language teaching sector, are sat by students throughout the country. Local governments set 'tryout' practice tests, and students in grades 6, 9 and 10 spend an eternity, which several months can seem to be, learning little new, or of practical use for their futures.

This is what Iqbal Widastomo said three years ago.

We need to change the mindset of many of our educators to first become critical thinkers themselves before they can develop and encourage critical thinking in the schoolchildren.

Our continuing obsession with discipline and strict order in schools creates a problem for our students and this problem leaves them and us at a disadvantage in the international community. Too often they are being left behind because they have not been taught to think.

They have not been given a chance to think and explore as they naturally should have as children growing up and learning. But they need to be able to think and question and challenge ideas for themselves. Our schools, however, still do not encourage this but instead continue to emphasize memorization rather than actual thinking.

I don't believe we should over-blame the schools. It's only been fourteen years since the abdication of Suharto and changing the mindsets of the powers-that-be takes a generation or two. That the élites in the legislatures and their bureaucracies are the self-perpetuating hangovers is a matter for the electorate to determine – and hopefully as soon as possible. However, teachers and parents of current school students are 'victims' of the Suharto era and, with a few notable exceptions, have yet to change their mindsets.

What gets my goat more than anything is that the tests themselves, both locally and nationally derived are flawed. Or, to put it more bluntly, are riddled with errors.

Last year, Our Kid graduated from grade 9 and is now settled in the senior high school regime. He goes to a school which bills itself as a 'National Plus', a private fee-paying school. These schools need a continued intake in order to survive as a commercial enterprise, and recruits qualified, experienced and caring teachers in order to ensure a 100% pass rate.

Image is everything. (That this year's annual wall calendar highlights various teachers including those who are awarded for their "Pucntuality" (sic) is somewhat unfortunate.) However, I do still feel a sense of resentment fostered at his graduation ceremony last year.

Our Kid came home after sitting the English exam and told me that he'd answered two answers (out of fifty) incorrectly. He'd made a note of the questions and the four possible answer.choices, and yes, he had got them wrong. But hey, 96% is an excellent result in my book.

At the graduation ceremony a lass was praised and awarded a month's free tuition for getting 100%. A couple of months later, the official certificate came through and it turned out that Our Kid had been awarded 98%.

Now, given that certificates are computer-generated, I can only surmise that one of the questions Our Kid had got 'wrong', had been a 'bad' question, i.e. had the wrong answer in the marking key. Therefore, the lass had given the 'right' answer according to the government, but was in fact 'wrong' and therefore did not actually achieve 100%.

If you've followed my convoluted thinking so far, consider this question set by Jakarta's (lack of) Education Dept. for this past week's tryout exams for this year's batch of grade 9s.

Q. When will the wedding anniversary be held?
…..A. In the afternoon. ……C. In the evening.
…..B. In the morning. …….-D. At night.

There's nothing wrong with the English, but the question …?

How can you 'hold' an anniversary? The occasion is on a particular day or date, and is therefore of 24 hours duration, so none of the answers are correct. Surely it's a party, a get-together, or soiree that will be held at 8pm.

Then there is the matter of interpretation. 8pm in Indonesian is 'malam', i.e. night, yet to an Englishman such as myself, it's the evening, the gap between work obligations and bedtime.

Finally, the text preceding the one above is below. Your task is to work out how many mistakes you can find in the fourteen words. I'll post my analysis once someone (you?) has found a few.

"This thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.”
Mary Pickford *

No-one is quite sure who said that first, but we can all think of examples where the opposite is true.

In Indonesia there have been a number of recent high-level cases of policemen, tax officials, elected regents, governors, legislators, prosecuters and judges who've been caught accepting, or even demanding, brown envelopes.

Perhaps that catch phrase needs amending to Cheaters never prosper… unless they run big corporations.

Think Aburizal Bakrie.

What is more worrying is that when folk attempt to not cheat, they're more likely to end up ostracised.

Take the case of “Sia”, the parent of an elementary school student in Surabaya, East Java, who recently reported cheating committed by the school.  The Surabaya mayor deployed an independent team tasked with investigating the case. The team concluded that school officials committed a number of violations to help students pass the exams. This resulted in the dismissal of the headmaster and two members of the teaching staff.

The parents of hundreds of other students staged a rally in front of Sia’s home (not his real name), cursing him and demanding that he leave the area. Police were deployed to protect Sia’s family from the angry mob.

Sia and his family have fled to Yogyakarta in Central Java.

Cheating is a national pastime in Indonesia. – 'normal' is the word used by the Post. From the pretend politicians faking graduation certificates in order to qualify for elective office to professors gaining their tenure through plagiarism; from the ever-changing ministers of education who set national curricula which reflect their mindsets to the bureaucrats who set the rigid – yet error-strewn – national exams for all students from elementary school to pre-university whilst there is 'leakage' from the 20% of Indonesia's annual budget supposedly allocated for education – there is little that is exemplary here.

All that is of little account without a recognition that humans have innate abilities fostered through the cultural expectations of their nurturing and environments. Although easily programmed and bent to the will of others – vide the prevalent post-schooling consumerism  – there has to be a recognition that we all have something to give our communities, beyond notional standardised norms. The act of giving without the expectation that we should receive something in return is surely reward enough.

This may sound too idealistic for some. Yet assume that a start is made with reforming the format of school tests; these are without regard to childhood developmental stages, so are based on the notion that every child of a certain age should have acquired the same snippets of information. Why, apart from basic numeracy and literacy, tools essential for knowledge acquisition, should there be a culture of 'pass' or 'fail'? Tangible goals and targets could be set on an individual basis relating to acquired knowledge and ability, with awards, grades, scores or whatever, awarded for personal achievements and creativity set .

With quality teaching, meaning the offering of a carrot rather than a stick, and an awareness of the many ways we learn, ranging from an element of rote learning for rules, to exploration through reading – whether online or in books is largely immaterial, practical activities, and, above all, the freedom to learn through mistakes, then there is the opportunity, albeit a mere glimmer of hope, that future generations can at least strive to reach their potential.

No-one wants to be branded a failure. Without the necessity to cheat, then no-one need be.
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* Famous failures

Following my posts here and here about the current turmoil in the English language provision sector, I’ve had a behind the scenes correspondence with those practioners in my network.

Gene Netto, a friend and former colleague, arranged to meet two ‘special staff’ of the current Minister of Education. The following is his report of the meeting he had on Monday. Not having had the time to publish it until now, I circulated it privately.

I hope it has helped the folk who emailed me thus: I followed a link from daveseslcafe to your blog. I am trying to go to Indonesia in January, spend a month getting certified, and then teach with my girlfriend afterwards. We both have Undergraduate degrees but, it would appear things have changed, and that without a degree in Education/English, it is impossible to teach in Indonesia. Would you agree with this sentiment? I haven’t paid for my course or anything yet, and would like to change my location to a country in SE Asia where we could get certified and teach. Any recommendations?

Read on friend, and if you still want to come to Indonesia, I hope you can.
BTW. IALF – Bali and TBI – Jakarta offer certification courses.

Info. about Ministerial Regulation 66/2009 For Teaching In Indonesia

Dear friends and English teachers,

A few days ago I was informed by my friend Jakartass about the online discussion in some forums about a regulation from the Minister of Education, No.66 / 2009. Once I saw the content of that regulation, and was informed by Jakartass that some teachers may already be facing problems, I made an appointment with 2 Special Staff members who work directly for the Minster of Education (Staf Khusus Menteri).

As a brief summary: don’t panic. The regulation will hopefully be revised very soon.

I met the Special Staff members on Monday morning, 1st of November, 2010, at their office in the Ministry. Both of them had never heard of this regulation, and had not heard any news about it being implemented in the field. I had printed the regulation from the ministry’s website, and highlighted some unusual sections. We had a discussion for about 1.5 hours, and the result is that hopefully there is no need for teachers with bachelor degrees to be concerned.

One item that was highlighted online was the supposed requirement that all teachers would need master’s degrees in order to teach here. That is NOT the case.

The guys explained that the Indonesian text refers to two different groups. Firstly, there are teachers (pendidik asing) in Article 3, who must have a bachelor’s degree. That is nothing new and has been on the books for many years).

Then, in Article 4, it states that a master’s degree is required. They pointed out that Article 4 refers to tenaga kependidikan asing = “foreign educational workers”. When I asked what the difference was, they explained that “foreign educational workers” are those working as staff members in libraries or doing general research in laboratories. I explained that as far as I know, there are no westerners working as school librarians in Indonesia (except possibly at ‘genuine’ International Schools such as JIS and BIS. J ), and if anyone had a master’s degree, I couldn’t imagine them wanting to move to Jakarta to become a school librarian anyway! (And I have no idea what “research laboratory staff” would be doing, or in what context, or how that relates to education.)

Both guys smiled a lot during our meeting and seemed genuinely amused and bewildered, while I carefully explained the absurdity of many parts of the text. They explained in detail that this regulation was made by the previous minister in 2009 – just as he left office. They had never seen it before, had never heard of it, had no idea who made it, or why. They guessed that perhaps it had been made as a response to complaints about the poor quality of SOME English teachers in Indonesia.

For example, a western truck driver, with no university degree, no TEFL certificate, no teaching experience, and generally speaking no skill in education whatsoever, who just happened to end up in Indonesia and strangely got a job as a university  lecturer or EFL teacher simply because he had white skin and a foreign passport. (And I’ve all met a few people like that, so I knew what they were talking about.)

The guys surmised that possibly there was a last-minute effort from someone at the ministry to have a decree that would put a stop to such nonsense, and so it was put to the previous minister just before he left office, and he signed it, coming into effect immediately (October 2009). They mentioned that there would be a new unit soon at the Directorate General’s office that would be dealing with the issue of quality amongst teachers, but both men doubted that anyone would be focused on westerners when there are so many Indonesian teachers needing assistance to improve their skills. They promised to check into this regulation, find out who made it and why, and also if anyone is actively trying to enforce it. After we had discussed the articles one by one, they agreed that many were strange, not very relevant, and the whole regulation was in need of review (which they promised to do).

So, if anyone knows of any schools or individual teachers who are feeling ‘targeted’ by this regulation then please feel free to email me directly at genenetto [at] gmail.com. I will pass on any information I receive and ask the Special Staff members to look into individual cases if necessary. I should point out that I am referring to westerners with bachelor’s degrees (in any subject) and TEFL certification and/or experience in teaching.

If any former truck drivers (no offence intended) want my help to keep them in their current job as EFL teachers or lecturers, then sorry, I may not be able to do anything about that (and probably would not want to).

I discussed with them the status of some young travelers who are “seeing the world”, have TEFL certificates and some experience, but have not completed university degrees yet. We talked about formal school requirements versus English course requirements and how there are many great teachers who are not ‘qualified teachers’ (with BA degrees in Education) but do an outstanding job teaching English conversation classes and basic grammar in their English schools.

Both Special Staff members were open, interested, and expressed a desire to keep good young (traveler) teachers in the country to help teach English in courses around Indonesia. However, it should be noted that they were speaking as advisors to the minister, and that their expression of concern is not the same as a legal regulation. But I believe that they were sincere in their desire to review the regulation, especially if we can supply them with factual information about good-quality teachers who are facing problems.

One recommendation from one of the staff members was for we foreign language teachers to form our own ‘association’ in order to assist the ministry. (He was not sure if foreigners could legally establish an association here, but I suggested that even an informal grouping would suffice.)

His suggestion was that we, meaning those of us who are foreign teachers with an interest in staying and working here could form a body, similar to the Indonesian Doctor’s Association. We would then provide a consultation service to the ministry, and help them to identify which individuals can actually teach in the classroom, know what they are talking about, and have a desire to contribute their skills and help to raise the quality of education nationally. We teachers would in effect help the ministry to sort out which teachers are capable of teaching (English, and other subjects) and declare that they are ‘one of us’, and also which teachers are uneducated, unqualified and incompetent and so will not be given a work visa after we inform the ministry that those individuals cannot teach.

Although it may be difficult to do in practice – where and how would we test these teachers, who would pay for our time, and so on? – it may be possible to do if some private schools and English courses would like to get involved by providing classrooms and perhaps some experienced teachers (from their own staff) to observe and rate a ‘practice class’ with any candidate seeking a first-time teaching visa for Indonesia. It would, of course, be difficult if the person was applying from overseas. And then there is the question of whether we teachers living here would have the time, energy and interest in doing such a job in order to help the ministry.

But I think it was still an interesting suggestion, and proof of the good intentions of those two guys at the ministry.

Regardless of whether such an organization can be formed or not, the bottom line from the meeting is that the regulation will be reviewed by those Special Staff members who met with meon Monday, changes will be made wherever appropriate, and they would like to get more input from anyone who has something constructive to add to what I have already told them.

That’s about it for now. For anyone who is interested, below I have added some more comments and information about the actual text of the regulation as it is now, and what we discussed in the meeting this morning. If anyone needs further assistance with this issue, before changes can be made to the regulation (I have no idea how long that might take) then please email me with details of the problem and contact information, and I will pass that on to the minister’s staff.

Maybe not everyone who wants to work here will be able to get a visa, but those who are coming here with good intentions, have basic skills and are ready to be tested on their ability will hopefully be permitted to get a visa. And if anyone knows of any teachers who have already experienced a problem then please ask them to contact me, even if they have already left Indonesia, so that I can share their information and experience with the minister’s staff. (It may not help them if they are already working somewhere else, but might prevent the same thing being done to other teachers in the short term.)

I mostly blog in Indonesian language, so if there are any further developments then I will share them with Jakartass to be disseminated to all relevant parties. (So watch this space for updates. J)

Regards,

Gene Netto (teaching English in Jakarta since 1996)

Notes And Comments From Our Meeting About Ministerial Regulation 66/2009
In Articles 3 and 4, it states that teachers must be physically and “mentally healthy”. I asked if trips to the psychiatrist would be needed to establish our mental health. (Broad smiles! No, not necessary they said. Just a formality, but probably will never be checked, unless the candidate is frothing at the mouth, or has his underpants on his head and two pencils stuck up his nose – if you don’t get that reference, then watch Blackadder Goes Fourth, starring Rowan Atkinson.)

In Article 5 (a) it states that both teachers (pendidik asing) as well as foreign educational workers (tenaga kependidikan asing = librarians and researchers) must produce a statement saying that they are free from HIV/AIDS and drugs. I asked why this should be done to teachers, and not to foreign oil company contractors, foreign pilots, foreign businessmen, Chinese fishermen landing in Papua, and so many others who are free to enter and leave the country, potentially spreading HIV all over the place without anyone asking them to take a blood test (or, as reported here, a urine test! J). I asked if English teachers are renowned as being responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, as opposed to everyone else. (More broad smiles!)

In Article 5 (b) it states that teachers (and foreign educational workers) must also make a declaration stating that they will not be involved in: “religious propaganda activities”, “intelligence activities”, “clandestine operations” (e.g. to destabilize the country), “will not carry out fundraising activities in Indonesia”, or “any other activities outside of the permit that has been granted.”

First, I asked who has the official definition of “religious propaganda activities” and where can I get it? If a Muslim speaks about Islam in someone’s office, home or community hall, and Christians are present, is that categorized as “religious propaganda” or not? (More broad smiles and lots of silent contemplation!) And if a Muslim is permitted to talk to others about his religious beliefs, and that is not considered “religious propaganda”, then are Christians and Buddhists and Hindus also allowed to do the same thing? When does sharing one’s religious beliefs with others become “propaganda”? And who decided where that boundary was? (More broad smiles!) (I wondered if perhaps it is only propaganda if Christians are doing it to Muslims, but not the other way round! Who knows!)

Next, with a nice big smile on my face, I asked about the intelligence and relevance of (hypothetically) asking a CIA operative posing as an English teacher if he was in fact a foreign spy, and then believing him when he said “No”. Surely all intelligent intelligence agents working in a foreign country are unlikely to produce a written declaration saying, “Sorry for deceiving you. Since you asked, I cannot tell a lie: I am a CIA operative, and am only pretending to be an English teacher. You’ve caught me with your carefully worded question (“Are you an intelligence operative?”). So, now I must confess. Please arrest me and deport me!”

So, if no intelligence agent is likely to admit that he is one, then what exactly is the point of making all teachers (but not other foreign workers) sign declarations saying that they are not foreign spies? (More broad smiles and a few comments!)

As for “…will not carry out fundraising activities in Indonesia.. .” I explained that I already do that on a regular basis, collecting money from friends and blog readers, to donate to charitable causes here (without taking any for myself, and also donating my own money on top of that given by others). Is it illegal to collect any money at all? Should I stop doing that now that this regulation makes it illegal, and just leave poor Indonesians to suffer in poverty and hardship, even though I am capable of helping out? (More broad smiles! No, that’s probably not what it means, but they didn’t really know what it was talking about.)

And as for not doing “…any other activities outside of the permit that has been granted”, well, that is just a Pandora’s Box of illegal activities. Based on that section of the regulation, I basically break the law on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. I just tried writing a list of all the things that I do here in addition to teaching and created a very long paragraph of mostly social and voluntary activities, which according to the regulation are all potentially illegal. Should I stop doing everything? (Is writing this article illegal? It’s not in my permit! Hahaha…)

The rest of the articles and clauses in the regulation are fairly standard stuff, related to copies of certificates and so on. Nothing unusual. Most of that will probably remain (unless they scrap the whole thing), and they said that they would focus on trying to understand and rewrite all the weird stuff mentioned above. For the moment, remain calm, and please let me know  – email: genenetto[AT]gmail.com – if anyone feels like they are being targeted. I will inform the minister’s advisors, and hopefully they will want to get involved and keep good teachers here.
The original text of the regulation in Indonesian is here, and also here (uploaded by yours truly. J)

You can translate it using Google Translate, but why bother? It’s not really worth your time. Go and smell some roses instead.

Keep smiling.

Gene Netto
Jakarta 1st November 2010
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Footnote
That senior officials had no knowledge of this recently issued regulation, and that it was issued shortly before the new Minister of Education took office, has lead cynics among us to suggest that a bit of ‘rent seeking’ (aka brown envelopes) was the reason for the hurried (i.e.badly thought out) regulation to be issued.
J

“It’s ironic that Suharto is sometimes called ‘the father of development.’ It is much easier to be corrupt than be creative. No free thinkers allowed. Too dangerous. Creativity is all to easily snuffed out by corruption. Better just to be a consumer.”
Thomas Belfield

Thomas and I are corresponding about “post-modern Jakarta”, but as I freely adapt quotes to fit my own theories (theses?), it serves as an indication that, as I frequently comment, the administrators of Indonesia – at all levels – rarely think about consequences when they do attempt free thinking.

A word they often use is ‘socialisation’, which they and we take to be the familiarisation of proposed laws and/or regulations intended to change societal behaviour.

My last post reviewed the business – although I prefer the word ‘profession’ – of TEFLing, the teaching of English to Indonesians.

A year ago, on October 2nd 2009, the then Minister of Education promulgated a new law, Act No.66 of 2009 About Granting Permission for Foreign National Teachers in formal and non-formal education units in Indonesia. It’s online in Indonesian here and the Google translation into English is here.

In essence, the law sets out the procedures for the recruitment of native speaker teachers from abroad, procedures which have been in force for as long as I can recall.

Given the turmoil among TEFLers already here, it would appear that the bureaucrats in the Ministry (Depnikas) were not sufficiently ‘socialised’ regarding the changes in the law, even though they’ve had a full year to understand its intentions, but that could be because there are grey areas..

For example, (in the Google translation): Educators are required to have academic qualifications, competence, certificates and education personnel (are expected to be?) physically and mentally healthy, and have ability to support the realization of national education goals.

That sounds eminently sensible, until you read on.

Academic qualifications referred to [are] determined as follows:
a. educated at least masters degree from college accredited for education personnel on formal education units in elementary and secondary education, including nursery
(kindergarten), and higher education in the form of polytechnics and colleges;
b. educated at least doctorates from universities accredited for education personnel in higher education units the form high schools, universities and institutes.

A masters degree to teach in a kindergarten? A doctorate in education to teach in universities?

Who on earth would want to come to Indonesia with its paltry salaries if they’re so well qualified ‘back home’?

Or is this a reference to the academically low level of degrees awarded in Indonesian universities? Only 140 rank in this list of the world’s top 20,000 universities, with the highest ranked university, the Institute of Technology Bandung at 589. The figure isn’t good even for south-east Asia with ITB at 8th.

Then there are the health requirements, both physical and mental: New recruits are required to produce a certificate of good health and spirit, free of HIV / AIDS and free drugs from the hospital in the country concerned and to the check back / reset by the state hospital Indonesia.

I must admit that being of good spirit is a good thing. Unfortunately, Indonesia has a knack of making folk unhappy with its levels of corruption, pollution, and bureaucratic bloody-mindedness. Besides, how can you measure ‘good spirit’? Is every new recruit supposed to produce a psychotherapist’s report?

Regarding the requirement of a certificate from the home country showing that one is free from HIV/AIDS, this Wiki page states: Legal guidelines regarding HIV/AIDS do not exist although AIDS is a major problem in most countries in the region. Those infected with HIV traveling to Indonesia can possibly be refused entry or threatened with quarantine.

It’s that word “possibly” which throws Article 5.3a of the Act into legal doubt, especially as a new recruits are expected to undergo a further test at an Indonesian hospital.

For more on AIDS prevalence and preventation, see this page which in part reads as follows: One aim of the National AIDS Commission 2007-2010 HIV and AIDS Response Strategy is to provide an enabling environment where civil society can play a significant role, and stigma and discrimination are eliminated or at least minimized.

Until ALL visitors to Indonesia, whether dignatories, businessfolk, tourists or drug traffickers, are subject to the same rigorous rigmarole, Article 5.3a is clearly discriminatory and against government policy.

One final thought: Article 5.3b requires a personal statement [that foreign educators] will not engage in propaganda activities religious, or klandesten intelligence, not doing collection of funds in Indonesia, and other activities outside the permit granted.

Where can I get a permit to engage in “klandesten intelligence”?

The Teaching of English of as a Foreign Language ¹ (TEFL) is a massive worldwide industry. Not only is it a foreign currency earner in a number of countries such as Australia and the UK, but it has been used as a cover for human trafficking.

I entered the profession because I wanted to return to south-east Asia and as a qualified and experienced school teacher I felt that this was a route which would provide me with a level of income sufficient for my needs. And so it has generally proved.

When I first arrived, at the tail end of 1987, I had been recruited by EEP, a language institute in South Jakarta, equipped with an internationally recognised Certificate in TEFL (CTEFL), gained after a grueling six week course in London at a cost of £1,000, an 18 month contract, somewhere to live and a return air ticket. I then learned the intricacies of syntax, grammar, collocation, phonetics and other confusing stuff, as well as how to pass on the knowledge to bright non-native speakers of all ages (6 – 83 years), at all levels, from elementary (SD) to university, and the full range of courses, from general to specific purposes (e.g. business), and academic, including international exams (the UCLES suite, ToEFL, IELTS).

When I arrived, there were as many as 50 similarly qualified colleagues, although I understand that this particular establishment has since shrunk to just a small branch in Bandung. The head office of another company I worked for, ILP, had 2,000 students passing through the doors of its main centre every week and employed 60 native speakers, all university graduates with a CETFL, and 40 Indonesian teachers of English who had ‘graduated’ from in-house training courses whose instructors were native speakers such as myself.

Then in 96/7 the Asian Economic Crisis (krismon) hit, swiftly followed by the civil unrest which unseated Suharto and ushered in reformasi. This lead to a massive exodus of expatriates, not only teachers. I surmise that most of the native speaker teachers who remained did so out of a contentment with family life here (e.g. me), out of a perceived lack of opportunity ‘back home’, or their sheer indolence.

Apart from a few plum positions with universities, or foreign government sponsored organisations such as the British Council and the Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation (IALF), all language institutes then had a simple credo – bums on seats. In other words, they were profit-driven.

New business models were set in motion. ILP, for example, followed the franchise route. Their best local (Indonesian) teachers were recruited to be the principals, known as Academic Co-ordinators in the international chain EF which provided the franchise model. ILP’s in-house training programme for new teachers was shortened to three weeks from the previous four or five. Native speakers with an in-depth knowledge of the cultural norms of English and the reasoning behind the long-established methodology being in very short supply, inevitably and unfortunately the level of English and the quality of teaching has suffered.

New avenues of employment were opened in the formal school sector with the establishment of privately owned ‘national plus’ schools which were supposed to offer foreign curricula and, more recently, ‘international’ schools, which in the main have been classes within established schools which, although supposedly offering English native speakers teaching other subjects, have mainly been distinguished by the provision of air conditioning.

And this sector is where problems have arisen and the proposed ‘solutions’ offered by the Department of Education (Depdiknas) have thrown the TEFLing industry into turmoil, and its teachers into a state of insecurity, if not paranoia.

Not unexpectedly, one particular organisation, Yayasan Badan Pendidikan Kristen – Penabur, may have been the catalyst. I don’t intend to go into my successful case (but yet to be finally resolved) legal case against them; if you want the gory details, my diatribes plus details of complaints from  parents, students and other teachers, then either search ‘Penabur’ in the box provided on the right or click this link on my ‘schooling’ blog.

In the early stages of the Penabur project that employed me, a member of the Board of Management told me in all seriousness, “Parents want to see a white face in the classroom.” (He also referred to local teachers as ‘monkeys’.)

Apart from the sheer offensiveness (and inaccuracy) of that statement, it was an indication that all was not well within Penabur, that they had lost sight of the core values of schools.

A year or so ago, parents of students enrolled in the ‘international class’ in a Penabur senior high school were horrified to discover that the supposedly qualified native speaker English teacher was, to put it bluntly, illiterate. They organised a protest, a delegation I understand, to Depdiknas.

As a result, revised employment criteria are now being enforced – apparently. I add that caveat because Depdiknas has not unexpectedly misfired in its aims.

I was first alerted to the issue by a couple of emails from a correspondent who works for the Australian company TBI (which stands for The British Institute, even though the shares of the original British owners, Bell, have been bought out by an Australian company). He wrote: The Ed Dept now has a checklist (at least in our case) – one of the things to be checked is whether we have HIV or drugs in our urine. Oh, and we have to have a sworn translation of our CV. I am now illegal here pending the outcome of all this hullabaloo. Bit scarey really.

The gossip has it that ILP, Wall Street, a recent American entrant, and a local start up company, AIM, have had to reassess their employment of native speakers.

I have been unable to track down the checklist or a copy of the regulations issued by Depdiknas but if the above is true, then one must query the notion that an HIV test involves urine; surely it is blood that needs to be tested! As for a sworn translation of a CV, this is no guarantee of the truth therein. Besides, as a CV is a set of data – names, dates, addresses and the like – most of the content is untranslateable. It is as it is!
…………………………………………………………………………

Update (24.10.10)
Thanks to my correspondent, I can now bring you the relevant new law (By the Grace of God Almighty, Act 66 of 2009 About Granting Permission for Foreign National Teachers in formal and non-formal education units in Indonesia, Stipulated in Jakarta on October 2, 2009 by the Minister of National Education, Bambang Sudibyo.)

It’s in Indonesian here and the Google translation is here.
My additional comments are in the post above.
…………………………………………………………………………

A bit of googling has produced a TBI online ad for overseas recruits dated 2010-10-05. I take this to mean 5th October, although it could well be 10th May, thus preceding the current paranoia disarray in the industry.

Qualifications
CELTA, Trinity or equivalent certification (120-hour face-to-face (not online) course with assessed teaching practice) and a university degree. We prefer teachers with experience, but are prepared to consider newly qualified applicants.
N.B. Please note, due to Indonesian employment regulations, we are only able to employ native speaker teachers holding passports from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States.

The benefits offered by TBI are as good as they get and the good news is that Irish applicants are now welcome. The original list, issued by Depdiknas some 15 years ago, of those countries which have English as the first language and which are eligible as recruitment sources did not include Ireland.

The bad news, is that there is no new news about the employment of fluent (and literate) English speakers in schools and universities. Whereas the success of language schools is largely determined by their popularity, best engendered through word of mouth, the same cannot be said of grade schools which are obliged to teach subjects determined by Depdiknas.

Native speakers of English are also recruited by the private school sector, dominated by ‘national plus’ schools and, more recently, by schools which label themselves as ‘international’ because they are expected to teach the curricula of other countries. Originally, international schools were exclusively for the children of foreign nationals, but since 2003 (Act No. 20, year 2003 on National Education System)², Indonesian nationals have been permitted to enrol their children.

These schools are not totally exempt from the dictates of Depdiknas as Indonesian children are required to sit the flawed national exams.

As the Warden of the fictional St.John’s University in The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies (pub. Penguin 1982) says, “Education for immediate popular consumption is more popular than ever, and nobody wants to think of the intellectual tone of the nation.”

What needs to be understood is that the upgrading of English in schools requires a recognition that students have different needs based on cultural and emotional needs, as well as their individual skills, talents and ‘intelligences‘, as well as ‘content knowledge‘.

Act No.20 states: English is to be used as the medium of instruction for science, mathematics and core vocational subjects from Year 4 of primary school and throughout junior secondary school, senior secondary school and vocational secondary school.

Teachers must possess the competence required to teach their subjects through English.

An analysis² of the ‘international’ schools points out that in 2007 and 2008 the Ministry of National Education, using TOEIC (the Test of English for International Communication) as its instrument, carried out a study of the English language competence of 27,000 teachers in 549 international standard junior secondary, senior secondary and senior vocational schools.

The findings of this study (Depdiknas 2009) showed that more than half of all teachers fell into the lowest competency band (‘novice’, scoring between 10 and 250 points).  Meanwhile, fewer than 1% of teachers fell into the top two bands (‘advanced working proficiency’ scoring between 785 and 900 points and ‘general professional proficiency’ scoring 905-990 points).

A little more online investigation produces the following recent quote from Education Minister Mohammad Nuh who said that there are 2.6 million teachers in Indonesia, and around 57.4 percent or some 1.5 million of whom have Strata-1 degree while the rests (sic) are still vying to gain teaching certificate.

Further research indicates that barely 40% of subject teachers are actually qualified to teach that subject. Christine Hakim, the noted Indonesian actress and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO, suggests that at least 2 million volunteer or part-time teachers are employed in Indonesia.

The TBI recruitment ad quoted above has been the norm for recruited native speaker teachers as long as I can remember; they (we) have brought untold benefits to Indonesians seeking advancement in their careers without the need to go overseas.

That Depdiknas is requiring that only native speaker teachers of English who have obtained a degree in education, rather than in other subjects, to seek employment in Indonesian schools is nonsensical when the criteria for its own ‘local’ teachers are nowhere near being met, and is yet another example of the bureaucracies’ ability to mistake a tree for a forest.

This is not to say that the TEFL industry’s standards cannot be improved, but a more considered approach is sorely needed. Teaching anything is not an easy option and, as in other countries, teachers do not enter the profession to financially enrich themselves. Teaching can be extremely stressful and the rewards are generally intangible.

Rather than implementing piecemeal ‘solutions’ which create further problems, the education sector – both private and public – needs a thorough review to ensure that national (and regional) social, rather than political, objectives are met.

As it is, the pluralism so often promulgated is showing signs of increased fragmentation.
…………………………………………………………..
¹ aka TESOL – Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages and TESL – Teaching of English as a Second Language.
²An interesting analysis of the problems faced by ‘International’ schools can be found here.

My title is taken from a post on Ross McKay’s blog, the only thread I’ve found abiout the current problems faced by the majority of non-Indonesian English teachers here in Indonesia. This issue was, however, forecast back in February on the Living in Indonesia forum.

Every so often I get to read an online article which offers the theory that the internet is destroying our brains. Or maybe not. Certainly, those of us with access to it, however limited that may be, have changed our reading habits, ergo the ways we take in and use information.

Some, such as Jeremy Wagstaff in his syndicated column Lost in the Flow of The Digital Word in the Post argues that "digital rules, and ebooks now make more sense than papyrus."

He bases this on the 'fact' that online bookseller Amazon "is now selling more ebooks than hardbacks." Hardbacks are not my reading fornat of choice, and I can't be bothered to check Amazon's stats for paperbacks or used copies sold, nor do I wish to attempt to quantify the number of books bought online from publishers or readily available in specialist and chain bookstores.

Jeremy has written to me to say that "the device doesn't need to be connected for you to read, only to download. And the file sizes are small. And you only need one app to make it happen."

Fair enough, but batteries need regular recharging. Besides, I've always loved the feel and smell of books, the pleasure of turning over a new leaf, and their neat arrangement (usually) on my shelves where they await a reread.

Given that I've had to reformat the hard drive on my computer umpteen times as well as creating backups, I still manage to lose documents and files. So, what is the lifespan of a soft-copy book on forever being 'improved' electronic reading aids?

Anyway, I digress a bit as this post isn't supposed to be about the medium, but the message. Whether we read a novel on the iPhone, a Kindle or in a hardback paper format, what is important is, as Jeremy states, that "we lose ourselves in the reading … [and} … tune out what is around us."

If the quarter page colour ad in yesterday's Post wasn't placed by Astra International, the major car importer and assembler in Indonesia, I'd be somewhat less cynical. (Spot the punctuation error!)

ONE educated child will lead to ONE educated family. Imagine the result of ONE million educated children, they will create ONE illiteracy-free generation!

There's a problem of numeracy in this. It is widely expected that the main results of the recent census will be published this week and they will show that the population has grown to 238 million. If the literacy rate as given by UNESCO was 92% as at 2007, then there are c.22 million illiterate citizens. Given that the 'educated' classes tend to have smaller families, then it's going to take a lot longer than one generation.

But, hey, Astra has a message of hope.

Roll up your sleeves!
(Most us prefer short sleeves, but no matter, do carry on.)

Let's share the spirit of nurturing the nation's youth and help them become the next generation that has confidence to meet challenges in tomorrow's world.
(Because our generation is going to leave them with a pretty fucked up world?)

So, what is literacy?

At a basic level, it's the functional skills of reading and writing, as well as oral communication. However, this does not necessarily equate with what I term as 'productive communication', the ability to hold opinions and to engage in reasoned discourse and debate. That requires a fifth element: analytical thought rather than emotional responses.

That so much that is read is now written as tweets to 'friends' and unseen 'faces' is only self-nurturing, a futile search for community aided by the very tools which Jeremy says encourages folk to read books in "short bursts".

I've always got a book 'on the go'; it's got pages I can touch and fold over to mark my place for the next time I'm stuck in a traffic jam or my flight is delayed, or for the loo when I've got the trots, or ….. for those moments when I can't work out where my next post is leading.

The main challenge in Indonesia today is to disengage from myopic and instant reactions, to examine and deal with the root causes of the evils of sectarianism, corruption and greed, and to engage with all communities which one is part of. This should not be a matter of self-preservation as much as growth.

And that's my message. Concentrated rather than cursory reading is a challenge, yet ultimately offers long-lasting pleasure and a focus into new worlds. The new horizons opened up are an index of possibilities and are therefore truly nurturing. That is true education, not the stultification offered by Astra.

However, I would like to share in their justification for taking up such valuable space.

First the good news.

Six elections were held on Tuesday in Lampung district, South Sumatra, for regents and mayors. All candidates had to have the backing of political parties. Abdurizal Bakrie, chairman of the Golkar Party and probably the most reviled national politician in Indonesia, campaigned and predicted at least four victories.

Golkar was “soundly trounced” in five of the elections.

Now the not so new bad news.

Some stats from a recent Post editorial show that there is concern that many Indonesian children miss out on what is euphemistically called education but in fact is schooling.

National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said that last year, around 1.7 percent of primary school students in the country were unable to finish their education, while 10 percent of those who graduated did not continue on to junior high.

Meanwhile, according to the national labor survey (Sakernas), 4.3 million out of 35.7 million of children aged between 10 and 17 in Indonesia have entered the workforces, which surely limits their opportunity to attend their classes.

Then there is a group children who can’t go back to school because of corporate negligence. And this one group in particular is the reason why there will never be a President Bakrie.

These children are among the 40,000 ‘refugees’ who had to flee the Sidoarjo mudflow, which, it is generally agreed, was caused by the incompetence of Lapindo Brantas, the oil drilling company owned by the Bakrie family.

Even cock-ups on a such a monumental scale as this one can be ‘excused’, but to ignore the plight of those who suffer from one’s incompetence cannot.

Mujtaba Hamdi of Coalition of Movements in Support of Justice for the Lapindo Mudflow Victims, which was founded for the sole purpose of seeking justice for the 40,000 people displaced by the disaster, said there were 103 children – from elementary to high school age – whose educations were now threatened because their parents’ incomes had declined following the disaster and neither the government nor Lapindo had provided compensation for education..

The coalition plans to collect Rp 43,644,500 (US$4,800) to buy books, uniforms and to pay for exams and building fees to help the Sidoarjo children.

Anyone wishing to donate can visit www.korbanlumpur.info and www.jatam.org.