Dessy Sagita

Siti Ngatmunah teaching her only student for the day. Siti and other teachers in remote areas say training will help make them better, more creative educators. (Photo: Dessy Sagita, JG)

Teachers Deep in Borneo Jungle Want Training Just to Cope

Sukamara, Central Kalimantan. While the new education minister speaks of all school-age children getting a full education by the end of 2010, the reality on the ground, especially in the country’s far-flung regions, tells a different story. Access to education continues to be limited while teachers struggle to make the most of even small opportunities to improve themselves.

Siti Ngatmunah is one such teacher. The 30-year-old woman, who has been teaching for nearly five years, dreams of earning a bachelor’s degree and improving her skills by attending development training programs. Unfortunately, Siti’s current posting is deep in the jungles of Central Kalimantan, in the remote district of Sukamara where 90 percent of the population are Hindu Kaharingan.

Just getting to Sukamara is a challenge in itself. Siti must take a two-hour airplane ride from Pontianak in West Kalimantan, followed by a two-hour speedboat ride on the Arut and Lamandau rivers, which wind through dense jungle, before a two-hour car trip along muddy, pot-holed roads finally delivers her to her destination. Heat, humidity and insects accompany her every step of the way.

To earn her bachelor’s degree, which she is currently attempting at the State Institute of Islamic Study in Palangkaraya, means another, even longer trip.

“I have to take a bus, a speedboat and another bus to get here. If I leave at 10 a.m., I’ll arrive by 3 a.m. the next morning, and the trip costs me my entire monthly salary,” she said while teaching the only student who had turned up for class that day.

Sudiyanto, Siti’s principal at Karta Mulya 1 elementary school, told the Jakarta Globe that since the government had required all teachers to have at least a bachelor’s degree, teachers with only a diploma were required to earn a degree.

In this regard, Sudiyanto is more fortunate than Siti. Because he started his career as a classroom teacher, he was eligible for a local government program that allowed him to study free of charge at an Open University. Siti, who began as a religion teacher, has to pay tuition costs and other expenses out her own pocket.

“Honestly, having a degree is not enough,” Sudiyanto said. “What we really need is lots of training to make our teachers better so they will be able to keep their students in class.”

In Sukamara, despite a local government policy to provide free school tuition for all school-age children, public awareness about the importance of education is still very poor and the enrollment rate remains low.

“Every new school year, there are only two or three parents who come to our school to voluntarily put their children into elementary school,” Sudiyanto said.

The modest school, located on the outskirts of Sukamara, only has 80 students in total. However, on the day the Globe visited, only 30 students showed up.

“We send our teachers to nearby villages with blank school enrollment forms and they approach families, one by one, to persuade them to send their children to school,” Sudiyanto said.

An hour’s drive away there is another school — the Sumber Mukti elementary school. It is little more than three classrooms and a tiny library housed in a rundown building constructed entirely of wood and surrounded by dry bushes. It only has 38 students.

Man’ud, the school’s religious studies teacher, said that despite having taught for more than 13 years, he had never received any formal training.

“Many times I don’t know how to handle my class, let alone how to make it less boring,” he said.

Another teacher at the school, Yoseba, said the lack of training and support made the work difficult and frustrating.

“Many times I am overwhelmed and I find myself unable to concentrate, having to teach two different classes, back and forth,” Yoseba said.

The tiny classrooms are separated by flimsy partitions, with students from different grades often taught at one time. Sometimes, the teachers have to juggle teaching two classes at once.

Danuri, the school’s principal, said the local education agency sometimes conducted training for the teachers, but it was not sufficient. “The scheduling is not really fair. Not all teachers get to join the training and we can never predict when it is going to happen — sometimes there will be a year’s gap between training, sometimes five,” he said.

Eddy Hendry, director of Programs and Alumni Affairs at the Sampoerna Foundation, which focuses on the education issues, said these types of problems were common in many new districts, where the definition of qualified teachers was generalized based on academic degrees. He said having an academic degree did not necessarily help teachers to become more creative.

“The most common classroom pattern is where teachers scribble notes on the blackboard and students just jot it down in their notebooks,” Eddy said.

He said this pattern could be replaced by applying “local wisdom” in classroom teaching and by using storytelling and discussions related to the environment in which the students live.

Ahmad Dirman, district chief of Sukamara, said that as a new district, Sukamara still had a lot to learn about education.

“We are very young. There are so many things we need to learn,” he said, after signing a memorandum of understanding with PT Sampoerna Agro, which sets out the terms for a teacher-training program funded by the company.

Under the program, 75 local teachers, principals and school supervisors will receive training on how to become better and more creative teachers.

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