I. INTRODUCTION
The fresh wind blew through any teacher’ and university lecturer’ rooms when the government issued The Act of number 14 on year 2005 about Teacher and University lecturer. It is because the government promises a financial incentive as much as one basic salary. But the incentive is only given to the teachers who have had educator certificate and it is not easy to get this certificate. The teachers have to reach a certain qualification to get such kind of certificate.
Based on the teacher and lecturer Act, teacher certification is a process in giving an educator certificate to the teachers who have fulfilled the competence requirement such as pedagogy competence, personality competence, social and professional competence.
The aim of teacher certification are (1) to determine proper teachers in carrying the work out as professional educator,(2) to improve the process and the result of teaching learning activity,(3) to improve teachers’ professionalism and welfare (4) to reach teacher prestige in implementing more qualified national education.
To qualify for the program, a school teacher must first of all have a four-year diploma or an undergraduate degree from a recognized tertiary institution. Junior teachers with achievements are encouraged to take part in a teacher certification program through teacher training that lasts two semesters; senior teachers are required to take part in teacher certification through portfolio assessment. These two types of teacher certification are conducted in more than 35 in-service teacher certification centres throughout Indonesia. The majority of these centres are located in state and private universities that were once teachers' colleges and are still running teacher training programs. Successful participants will receive an "Educator Certificate" entitling the holders to, among others, financial incentives and chances for career promotion.
II. THE REFLECTION
After being programmed for about three years, some education practitioners and observers criticize the implementation of teacher certification program. Rahmat Wahab (Kompas, December 19th, 2008) reports that many teachers proved doing falsification in filling the data. Mostly they manipulated the certificates of seminar and training, some have manipulated S1 and D4 certificates, and even they manipulated the data of teaching hours and school job description. It is happened because to pass a portfolio assessment they have to gain 850 points, so they did many things include in the bad ones to pass the assessment. As an executor chairman of teacher certification in Jogjakarta, Rahmat feels anxious that the implementation of teacher certification program is not suited to the mandatory of the Act itself.
E. Mulyana (2007) states that certification based- port folio is not relevant to the certification essence. He argued that the teacher certification should stress on a teacher competence in doing school function and purpose. Port folio test opens the opportunity to Indonesia people who have minimal consciousness to manipulate data in compiling the portfolios.
Another observer who also as a teacher in SMKN 38 Jakarta, Kusdiono in Kompas, November 23rd,2007 states that the teacher certification program has arisen ‘jealousy’ among the teachers in his school. Non-certified teachers assumed that they have worked as hard as certified teachers, but the discrepancy of income is quite far.
In my school, certified teachers tend to be passive in involving school activity. They argued that they give a chance to non –certified teachers to be active in order to get as many as points in completing their next portfolio.
In my opinion, another problem facing the teacher certification is about how our government later can fulfill the payment to the certified teachers. There are about 2, 7 million teachers in Indonesia. The government has a target that during next ten years all teachers will have been certified and will get the increasing income up to 300 percent. It means that there is trillions of money to make available because the government has to not only pay one salary but also the financial incentive. Up to three years of its implementation we can see how the government has run stiffly in paying the incentive. Ironically, the government is looking for any reasons to cancel the payment of the incentive. I will give some evidence which I have compiled from some newspapers.
The Chairman of National Education Service in Bengkulu, H Dani Hamdani said to ANTARA News, Monday November 30, 2009:
‘The financial incentive will be paid if there is a budget for this, but if the budget has run out, the incentive will be stopped because the incentive is like a functional incentive, and it depends on a priority scale of the province’.
In Medan, 450 teachers who have passed the certification on year 2008 have not received the payment yet. Dr. Baedhowi, as a Ditjen PMPTK gave a reason in Perintis Medan Hotel on December 15th, 2009 that not all the teachers have completed the papers, so the government cannot issue the certificates and, of course ,cannot pay the incentive ,too ( Kompas,Dec 17th, 2009).
In East Java, the payment of the incentive for certified teachers on year 2008 canceled until the end of the year 2009. Whereas, the government should have paid it maximum in August 2009 (Kompas, Nov 2nd ,2009).
The other example is from Gorontalo, until now, for about 248 certified teachers on year 2008 haven’t got their rights. Hamda Dumbi as a representative of national Education Service in Gorontalo said that the government cannot pay the incentive because the portfolio process on year 2008 has not been finished yet ( Kompas,Oct 19th , 2009).
Prof. Sunaryo Kartadinata, as a chairman of LPTK said in one seminar hold by Guru Sekolah Siti Hajar ( Sumut Pos, Nov 11th , 2009) that the teacher certification program have still brought many problems. There is no same perception between executive and legislative in funding the program. In the case, his institution is not ready to continue the teacher certification program on year 2010. He states:
‘The policy is taken because so far there is any confusion in implementing the program. The program should be improved in accordance to anticipate problems in future’.
Prof. Sunaryo added that so far, the government regulation which regulates the certification program has still bent to other regulations. From the fund side, the certification program takes the reference from National Education Ministry, but still there has not been synchronization between one regulation to another, one department to another department.
The last example is from the headmaster of SMAN 1 Manado, Dra. Marlyn J Taroreh (Kompas, Feb2nd, 2009). She is very sure that the government will not have capability in paying the incentive for all teachers and university lecturers.
‘Does the government have a capability to pay the salary for all the certified teachers and university teachers who will get 300 percent of income? I’m sure they don’t have enough budget, moreover, up to now, the government regulation number 14 hasn’t signed yet by President and National Education Ministry. There should be further studies about the implementation of teacher certification’
I think teacher certification is ironic program. In one side the government wants to implement the teacher and lecture Act. The main purpose is to increase the quality of education in Indonesia. But in another side, the government hasn’t anticipated any problems which appear. The preparation is far from the perfect. So far, only senior or old teachers have big opportunity to follow the program. It is very difficult to know their real competence because the portfolios assessment cannot show how competence they are in front of the class except in a form of a pile of papers. Most of senior teachers have still used old-fashioned methods which are not relevant to the recent situation in teaching learning activity. They tend to be difficult to change the way of teaching. In my school, a certified English teacher doesn’t need to improve her teaching way because the next four year she will be retired, so what for she has to improve her behavior. It is ironic, isn’t it? How about junior teachers who have capability in teaching? There is limitation in joining teaching training for certification program, so they have to be patient waiting for the training-in turn or portfolios assessment. Some feel that the government acts unfair to them. They have worked hard to be good teachers, they also have the same loyal to the school, but the seniority made some of them to be ‘broken heart’.
Most private teachers are also broken heart. The government decides that allotment 75%-85% of certification allocation is for public teachers (PNS teachers) while the rest is for public school teachers ( www.radarbanten.com and www.kompas.com). How does it come? They have the same profession and rights but the government acts unfair to them. Thus, although you are the best junior teacher in your private school, please be more patient to take your educator certificate.
I’m very sure there are still many problems in the certification program. I think it is a good program and we have to support it. But the government should re-evaluate the program to make it better.
III. THE SOLUTION
As a teacher, I have my own opinion about teacher certification. I don’t think that it is the best solution, but at least I ‘d like to give a little contribution to my profession.
1. Ideally, improving teacher competence is not merely the government’ responsibility, teachers also have a responsibility to make their life better. They also have responsibility to improve their capability and skills by themselves because they work in education service. There are students, parents, and society ‘hopes as for a bet. Teachers should be conscious that to be a teacher it means that they have to be professional.
2. In my opinion, competence test should be in form of not only portfolio but also competence examination like UAN for our students. The exam must cover competence of pedagogy, psychology and personality, social and professional. Give a chance to academic practitioners to make the test, motivate teachers to be honest in doing test. Beside the exam, teachers who get a standard score can follow the next section. An independent team will observe the teachers in managing class activity. The team may shoot the class situation by video camera. The teachers must prepare teaching materials included lesson plan and worksheet. Then the team will report their observation to the certification centre in chosen university or college. The certification centre will evaluate the scores from the exam, portfolio, and observation result, then later they can decide whether the teachers have the right to get educator certificate or not. Of course, it seemed more complicated but I think it’s more fair to judge the competency.
3. It would be better if in the first time teacher certification is offered not a must or chosen by local education service. Good teachers will automatically follow the certification program. There are at least two reasons why they will follow the program. First, they need to make reflection to themselves whether they have been professional teacher or not, when they don’t pass it, they will make introspection and try hard to improve their competence. Second, if they pass the exams they will get financial incentive to make their life more comfortable and enjoyable. Beside the government appreciation, school community and society will give more respect to certified teachers. Schools which have more certified teachers will get much interest from society. They will drive many good students to study there. It will motivate more teachers to follow the program.
4. There is needed much money to process teacher certification. It’s better if teachers help the government by sharing in expending of fund. The government will decide how much money to share with the teachers. Maybe it is very expensive to teachers, but later they will get more advantages in their profession. School community or local society is better to help their teachers to gain the certification. They will also get more advantages from this program. At least they feel proud having certified teachers for their children.
IV. CONCLUSION
Teacher certification program and the delivering of financial incentive should be studied and evaluated again to know how far the effectiveness and the efficiency in the implementation. It is important to think about how the program can be run in a simple mechanism. Teachers have to pay for the certificate by themselves. It will reduce the government’s responsibility because of limitation in national budget. The government must make available any teacher trainings to improve the competency of teachers. They also must pay the financial incentive as soon as possible after the teachers getting their educator certificate.
To keep the quality of education, in this case a certified teacher, the educator certificate must have an expired-time. Before the certificate expired, teachers can register the certification program again. They have always to renew the certificate if they want to get an incentive from government. It will guarantee teachers’ integrity and professionalism.
V. REFERENCES
-Buku 1 : Pedoman Penetapan Peserta Sertifikasi Guru 2010, Dikjen Dikti 2009
-Buku 2 : Petunjuk Teknis Pelaksanaan Setifikasi Guru 2009, Dikjen Dikti 2009
-Buku3 : Pedoman Penyusunan Portofolio tahun 2009, Dikjen Dikti 2009
-Buku4 : Petunjuk Teknis Sertifikasi Guru untuk guru, Dikjen Dikti2009
-Format Isian Peserta Sertifikasi Guru dan Pengawas 2010
-http://www.surya.co.id/2009/11/22/pemerintah-diminta-kaji-ulang-sertifikasi-guru.html
- http://www.jpnn.com/berita.detail-54277
- UU No. 14 Tahun 2005
- Peraturan Mendiknas No. 18 Tahun 2007
-Kompas ( some edition)
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