WE WON !!
Those of you who have been reading Jakartass for some time will probably remember that I and a colleague were dismissed without notice or due procedure by Yayasan Penabur. I blogged it here.
We took legal advice and employed lawyers to fight our case.
First we went through the channels of the Department of Manpower who found in our favour. Next we went to the Labour Court who, quite unexpectedly ~ except that this is Indonesia and little folk are rarely, it seems, dealt with fairly ~ found in favour of Penabur.
We therefore appealed to the Supreme Court, largely on the grounds that if we lost then each and every expat with a work permit would find themselves at risk in that there would be less legal protection than that afforded to Indonesia's migrant workers abroad.
We have been waiting for the Supreme Court's decision for over a year and today, finally, we learnt that they had found in our favour.
There are fine details to be sorted out so I'm not gloating.
However, I'm sure that all those teachers, parents and former students who have expressed support will be as pleased as we are. Thank you all.
Finally, in another case, Pak Chrismaryadi, School Board Member in charge of Penabur International Schools, wrote as follows: We are fully prepared and willing to stand up and fight for our rights in court. We had done this a few times before and we had 100% strike rate (won all the cases!)
Well, now Penabur hasn't. Perhaps it's time that they reconsidered their treatment of employees and accept that this has been remiss in the past.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Fired Penabur Teacher Is Cause Celebré
It would appear that the management of the self-styled BPK Penabur International can't do much right.
Having been accused by a parent of being arogan, they're now facing yet another court case for unlawful dismissal, this time brought by Dr. Walter Tonetto who was hired to be Principal of Penabur International at the head office campus in Tanjung Duren.
He was expected to work on a tourist visa, a deportation matter, he was belatedly paid relocation expenses from Bali, he wasn't been paid anything for the work he did do, and, in spite of protestations from Penabur that he was sent various letters from management requesting a meeting, there is no proof that they were in fact sent.
He was in Bali arranging his relocation.
So they fired him.
You can read all about it on International Schools Review.
Do read the self-justifying Penabur letters citing their 'Christian background' as good enough reasons for doing what they do. It's worth noting that they claim to have a 100% success rate in legal cases.
The Indonesian judiciary has this month been rated as the most corrupt in Asia in a poll of businessmen and, according to Transparency International, Indonesians trust them almost as little as they trust the police.
So, how do you think Penabur achieves such a startling success rate? This blog is now open to all teachers, students and parents who feel they have been wronged over the years by Penabur.
Having been accused by a parent of being arogan, they're now facing yet another court case for unlawful dismissal, this time brought by Dr. Walter Tonetto who was hired to be Principal of Penabur International at the head office campus in Tanjung Duren.He was expected to work on a tourist visa, a deportation matter, he was belatedly paid relocation expenses from Bali, he wasn't been paid anything for the work he did do, and, in spite of protestations from Penabur that he was sent various letters from management requesting a meeting, there is no proof that they were in fact sent.
He was in Bali arranging his relocation.
So they fired him.
You can read all about it on International Schools Review.
Do read the self-justifying Penabur letters citing their 'Christian background' as good enough reasons for doing what they do. It's worth noting that they claim to have a 100% success rate in legal cases.
The Indonesian judiciary has this month been rated as the most corrupt in Asia in a poll of businessmen and, according to Transparency International, Indonesians trust them almost as little as they trust the police.
So, how do you think Penabur achieves such a startling success rate? This blog is now open to all teachers, students and parents who feel they have been wronged over the years by Penabur.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Angry Students Write About Penabur
The following letter has been occasioned by the receipt of emails, over the past two years but several in the past month, from former students of BPK Penabur programmes. I am keeping their names confidential because, as one has written today, "if someone know that I give out this information, Penabur will do something bad for my degree, because as you know Penabur can do anything .... "It is certainly time for the atmosphere of intimidation engendered throughout the educational establishments of BPK Penabur, among teachers, students - but not, thankfully, parents (see below) - to cease.
........................................
Greetings former students of Penabur.
Many of you may not know that I have been involved in a legal case for two years against BPK Penabur for unfair dismissal. Depnaker (the Department of Manpower) in our favour, but the judge at Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial (the Industrial Relations Court) overturned the ruling, a surprise as this is almost unprecented. We are now waiting for the Supreme Court to overturn the PHI ruling and find in our favour - again.
You can read about the case here in Bhs. Indonesia and here in English:
What is sad, but an indication that Penabur is not well-managed, is that there are many teachers, both local and Indonesian who have been treated badly by BPK Penabur, who have also had to follow the legal route.
I know of teachers, both local and expat, who have ended up in hospital following their very bad treatment by the BPK Board, and of another teacher who had to sell his house in order to sponsor his own visa ~ UPI refused to process his exit permit or pay for the work he had already done.
Not one teacher ever leaves Penabur happy. Happy to leave, yes, but only because of the very unhappy situation they find themselves in, and very rarely, if ever, on mutually agreeable terms.
Not only teachers, but parents and, especially, you have been lied to, generally in the name of 'profitability'. To me, a lifelong educator, I find this to be both cynical and unforgivable, especially coming from an organisation which claims to be Christian. (Remember the story of Jesus and the moneylenders - Mathew 21.)
I have received emails from you, not only expressing disappointment at my dismissal, but also saying that you had misgivings about Penabur.
Some quotes:
1. I hope that you will win the case against Penabur... because my experience as being a student of Ukrida Penabur Internasional for almost three years was completely dissapointing ....
It started from the promises from the board member of UPI association, Mr.Sonny (Hartono). He promised the students that UPI would build a new building 1 year after my enrollment to UPI....but the fact is, there is no one single building for UPI!
Second, I graduated in November 2005 from my high school; one of the reasons why I chose UPI was that they promised that they will open the Foundation degree on Feb 2006. The fact was, they postponed the program until June 2006, ...so they lied to me for the second time....
Third, when I entered, UPI promised us that they will give native and expat lecturers, but we had many more local lecturers rather than native... the comparison is 1 native lecturer and 5 local ones, so we didn't really experience an International Environment like UPI promised to the Students and Parents.
2. All the foundation students don't agree with the increasing for tuition fees .... because at the first time we join the UPI, Chris (the former head of Curtin Uni sponsored programme) said that there would not be any raise. UPI increases the tuition fee, but they doesn't improve the fasilities such as computer access and student lounge ..... The Internet connection is also very bad ..... I don't know why they are doing this to the students.....
3. Our Accounting lecturer was an ex-pilot and had no experience in teaching but there he was.
I heard that Curtin wanted their students to move to Curtin Perth or Sydney on their third year, but UPI refused to cooperate and they said their students have to finish their studies here, unless the students actually wanted to move there. Thus, Curtin decided to cooperate with INTI College here instead.
4. From a former Senior High School student, now working in the USA.
I was disappointed to some of their decisions on P321 and PPBS. Other than that, they do need some serious wake up calls. I really hope you win this case.
(P3-21 -> Program Pembinaan Pemimpin - Abad 21 -> Leadership guidance program for 21st century.
PPBS -> Program Pembinaan Bakat Siswa -> Student talent guidance program.)
...................................
If any of you still have grievances against Penabur, I would like to hear from you and I will respect your privacy and confidentiality. You can email me here.
Anyway, now that you are no longer a Penabur student, I hope that your studies and life are to your satisfaction.
Best wishes.
J
PS. Please feel free to pass this email on to former Penabur/UPI students
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
An Angry Parent Writes to Kompas
Now parents are beginning to realise that BPK Penabur prioritises income from student fees above educational standards.Search for 'Penabur' in the Kompas archives and you'll find loads of stories about prize-winning students. Interestingly, the proprietor of Kompas, the respected Jakob Oetomo, started his journalistic career on the tabloid Penabur back in the 50's. That is why I'm surprised at the publication of this letter from a parent.
Dikecewakan BPK Penabur Internasional
Permasalahan diawali saat mendaftarkan anak saya untuk melanjutkan sekolah di kelas VII di Sekolah BPK Penabur Internasional Kelapa Gading, Jakarta Utara, tahun ajaran 2008/2009.
Saat pendaftaran pihak sekolah memberikan spesifikasi/keterangan/janji, antara lain proses belajar berlangsung hingga pukul 12.00 untuk sertifikasi Cambridge saja, atau pukul 14.00 bagi yang mengikuti pelajaran tambahan sesuai muatan lokal.
Guru yang mengajar adalah native speaker atau ekspatriat dengan sertifikasi Cambridge. Jumlah guru adalah dua guru per kelas masing-masing satu guru utama yang native/ekspatriat dibantu satu guru lokal.
Ketika tahun ajaran dimulai saya dikejutkan dengan pelaksanaan belajar-mengajar yang baru selesai pukul 16.35 belum termasuk ekstrakurikuler setiap hari Senin hingga Jumat. Setelah dihujani protes dari para orangtua murid, kemudian sejak 1 Agustus 2008 jadwal diubah menjadi pulang pukul 15.45.
Perubahan jadwal itu dilakukan dengan cara memotong jatah waktu istirahat siswa serta jam masuk sekolah dimajukan ke 07.15 dari 07.30. Lebih parah lagi guru yang mengajar cuma satu guru/kelas dan sebagian besar bukan ekspatriat seperti yang dijanjikan. Bahkan, beberapa guru tidak dapat berkomunikasi lisan secara baik dalam bahasa Inggris sebagaimana seharusnya di sekolah yang menggunakan kurikulum Cambridge dan menyatakan dirinya sekolah internasional.
Dalam perbincangan lewat telepon (15/8), Bapak Yadi dari yayasan dengan arogan menyatakan, memang mulai bulan Maret 2008 telah diputuskan tidak ada lagi sistem dua guru per kelas.
Ini tindakan sewenang-wenang setelah menerima uang registrasi (dibayarkan Februari 2008) sekian banyak terus melakukan perubahan sepihak tanpa mengindahkan janji yang diberikan pada saat penerimaan siswa. Ternyata yayasan/sekolah menghalalkan semua cara untuk mendapatkan siswa.
Sungkono Sadikin
Vila Permata Gading G 17, Jakarta
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Indonesia: Cultural and historical baggage
by David Jardine
It's not just misogyny. Women academics often have to overcome cultural difficulties and prejudice engrained by centuries of experience and tradition that favour their male colleagues. Indonesia is a case in point: any historical assessment of its educational development for women must take into account two broad things - the record of Dutch colonialism and the often turbulent record of the post-independence period.
If we begin with the former we find that in 1930, the colonial authorities published statistics showing only 6.4% of 'natives' could read and write, and more of these were men than women. This figure probably only counted people literate in the Roman alphabet and any literacy in Arabic for religious purposes or in the Pali script of the Javanese was probably discounted.
Whatever, the figure was truly dismal and would not have improved much, if at all, in the 15 years between its publication and the Indonesian Proklamasi of Independence, given that time included the Great Depression and the Japanese Occupation.
Following former President Sukarno's historic proclamation of independence on August 17 1945, there came four years and four months of bitter struggle with the Dutch, supported by the British. This was hardly an auspicious time for the new nation to build an education system of its own.
Basic literacy was the first target but that of course would have to wait on the training of teachers. The country's founding fathers, however, included a few of the tiny handful of Indonesians who had enjoyed higher education at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and in December 1949, weeks before the final Dutch withdrawal, Indonesia got its first university, Gajah Mada in the Central Java city of Jogjakarta.
In these circumstances, it would be quite startling to find more than a very few Indonesian women going to university and the first intake was predominantly male. What few who had received a good formal education, Dutch-style, included the national heroine and activist Raden Ayu Kartini who successive governments have iconised as a symbol of female emancipation, a position disputed somewhat by some Indonesian feminists. The latter include Gadis Arriva, who, as a philosophy professor at the University of Indonesia, remains one of the few highly placed female academics in the country.
Sukarno's leadership during the 1950s was undoubtedly popular with large segments of the Indonesian people but was erratic. Nonetheless, the state university expanded somewhat in these years with the creation of campuses outside Java as well as inside. Again, the impression is that women were in a minority in the student intake.
Sukarno was displaced in 1966 in the aftermath of the anti-leftist bloodbath that brought General Suharto to power with Western support. Despite this, there was a major expansion of both basic education infrastructure and the higher education system during the 32-year Suharto New Order regime from which large numbers of female students undoubtedly benefited.
At the same time basic literacy figures soared and showed very little disparity between boys and girls. Since the financial crisis of 1998 precipitating the student-led movement that brought Suharto down, however, Indonesia's school drop-out rate has climbed rather dramatically, with both genders affected but with poorer children doing worse than their richer classmates.
The paradox of the Suharto years is that along with the expansion of both state and private universities went a regime of quietism on the country's campuses. Towards the end of the regime this was bound to give way and the boisterous student movement that took to the street was far from universally male. Female college students, though, were also commonly in the way of the water cannon and baton charges.
Current constraints on female progress in education either as students or as academics include religious objections to female leadership. The same applies across the spectrum of public leadership. Although Indonesia has recently had one woman president, Sukarno's daughter Megawati, she appears untypical if not atypical. Only a small number of local governments are female-led.
The current Cabinet includes two influential women, Sri Mulyani as Finance Minister and Mari Pangestu as Trade Minister.
Clearly, in a country with a vast and overwhelming Muslim majority, such religious objections as are expressed are most likely to be Islamic. It is of note that overwhelmingly Hindu Bali is one of Megawati's political power bases.
A recent survey by the current affairs weekly Tempo found that women graduates were turning up in previously all-male fields of employment, including engineering in the oil industry and internet technology. This would seem to indicate that certain gender biases have begun to break down. Equally, it is of note that the women's studies programme at the University of Indonesia was established by a male rector.
Previously published by University World News
......................................
DJ tells that he has "since discovered several women professors in the better unis."
It's not just misogyny. Women academics often have to overcome cultural difficulties and prejudice engrained by centuries of experience and tradition that favour their male colleagues. Indonesia is a case in point: any historical assessment of its educational development for women must take into account two broad things - the record of Dutch colonialism and the often turbulent record of the post-independence period.
If we begin with the former we find that in 1930, the colonial authorities published statistics showing only 6.4% of 'natives' could read and write, and more of these were men than women. This figure probably only counted people literate in the Roman alphabet and any literacy in Arabic for religious purposes or in the Pali script of the Javanese was probably discounted.
Whatever, the figure was truly dismal and would not have improved much, if at all, in the 15 years between its publication and the Indonesian Proklamasi of Independence, given that time included the Great Depression and the Japanese Occupation.
Following former President Sukarno's historic proclamation of independence on August 17 1945, there came four years and four months of bitter struggle with the Dutch, supported by the British. This was hardly an auspicious time for the new nation to build an education system of its own.
Basic literacy was the first target but that of course would have to wait on the training of teachers. The country's founding fathers, however, included a few of the tiny handful of Indonesians who had enjoyed higher education at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and in December 1949, weeks before the final Dutch withdrawal, Indonesia got its first university, Gajah Mada in the Central Java city of Jogjakarta.
In these circumstances, it would be quite startling to find more than a very few Indonesian women going to university and the first intake was predominantly male. What few who had received a good formal education, Dutch-style, included the national heroine and activist Raden Ayu Kartini who successive governments have iconised as a symbol of female emancipation, a position disputed somewhat by some Indonesian feminists. The latter include Gadis Arriva, who, as a philosophy professor at the University of Indonesia, remains one of the few highly placed female academics in the country.
Sukarno's leadership during the 1950s was undoubtedly popular with large segments of the Indonesian people but was erratic. Nonetheless, the state university expanded somewhat in these years with the creation of campuses outside Java as well as inside. Again, the impression is that women were in a minority in the student intake.
Sukarno was displaced in 1966 in the aftermath of the anti-leftist bloodbath that brought General Suharto to power with Western support. Despite this, there was a major expansion of both basic education infrastructure and the higher education system during the 32-year Suharto New Order regime from which large numbers of female students undoubtedly benefited.
At the same time basic literacy figures soared and showed very little disparity between boys and girls. Since the financial crisis of 1998 precipitating the student-led movement that brought Suharto down, however, Indonesia's school drop-out rate has climbed rather dramatically, with both genders affected but with poorer children doing worse than their richer classmates.
The paradox of the Suharto years is that along with the expansion of both state and private universities went a regime of quietism on the country's campuses. Towards the end of the regime this was bound to give way and the boisterous student movement that took to the street was far from universally male. Female college students, though, were also commonly in the way of the water cannon and baton charges.
Current constraints on female progress in education either as students or as academics include religious objections to female leadership. The same applies across the spectrum of public leadership. Although Indonesia has recently had one woman president, Sukarno's daughter Megawati, she appears untypical if not atypical. Only a small number of local governments are female-led.
The current Cabinet includes two influential women, Sri Mulyani as Finance Minister and Mari Pangestu as Trade Minister.
Clearly, in a country with a vast and overwhelming Muslim majority, such religious objections as are expressed are most likely to be Islamic. It is of note that overwhelmingly Hindu Bali is one of Megawati's political power bases.
A recent survey by the current affairs weekly Tempo found that women graduates were turning up in previously all-male fields of employment, including engineering in the oil industry and internet technology. This would seem to indicate that certain gender biases have begun to break down. Equally, it is of note that the women's studies programme at the University of Indonesia was established by a male rector.
Previously published by University World News
......................................
DJ tells that he has "since discovered several women professors in the better unis."
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Examining The Examiners
The following is an edited version of a post on Jakartass.
Ignorant and Arrogant Kalla
Once again, the Vice President Yusuf Kalla, that mastermind of educational standards, has been taking potshots at parents and teachers. This time he has been talking about the Ujian Nasional (National Examinations).
These are set and administered by the Ministry of Education's Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (Institute/Board for National Education Standards). These are taken in SD (Elementary School, Grade 6, 11+), SMP (Junior High, Grade 9, 14+) and SMA (Senior High, Grade 12). In order to 'graduate' to the next level, which is university in the case of Grade 12 students, they must achieve a minimum average score of 5.25 in as many as six subjects, of which three, Maths, Indonesian and English are compulsory. Given regional ties and geopolitics, I do wonder why Mandarin isn't a higher priority.
Kalla says that the passing grade at 5.25 is still too low. After all, in Singapore it's 7.00 and in Malaysia it's 8.00.
Well, so ......?
As I've already stated, the national exams, being multi-choice, are designed for automatons trained in the art of guessing, although maybe it's not an art but a technology because it's not as if there are moves in education circles towards a population trained to be critical in their thinking.
Society is being trained to be acquiescent so that the likes of Kalla, Bakrie and other family conglomerates seemingly concerned with 'welfare' can enrich themselves at our expense. And we get the blame for the almighty cock-ups they've perpetrated on our behalf.
According to the Post, Kalla also says that teachers should teach the content that will be tested and students should know what is going to be tested. This could be interpreted as a licence to cheat.
However, I'll be fair and merely test one test.
I have a copy of this year's Junior High Ujian Nasional prepared for SMP. It is riddled with errors, too many to count, errors of collocation, syntax, spelling, punctuation, verb tenses and more. I reckon it's a good thing that the pass mark is "too low". And after all that, it merely tests basic reading skills and knowledge of synonyms. There are no writing, listening or oral components, which is probably just as well.
After all, if even the examiners can't pass it ....
Have a look at Question 7, which I've copied verbatim. What do you think is the correct answer?
..................................................
Read the following notice. It's put on the wall.
It means ...
-------A.----the place is special for you as visitors.
-------B.----this is a place for you to wait.
-------C.----you cannot wait anyone here.
-------D.----you should not stay here.
..................................................
Ignoring the fact that 'the' wall is not specified and the word 'for' is omitted from C, it seems obvious that C and D are not the right answers.
You'd probably correctly answer B, however, given that there are too many horrendous errors, that in one reading passage "Komala drowned ... and all of her guards could not save her" and that in another passage we are informed that there will be a wedding on "Friday, the thirthteenth of June", is A actually wrong?
So, Mr. Kalla, don't criticise parents who sue the Ministry of Education for failing their children, and don't criticise those teachers - again - who are really pissed off at being employed by a bunch of bureaucrats who think they have all the answers.
Which they probably do.
For a price.
..................................
Among the responses to the above post was this comment by Dr. Bruce:
The amount of classroom time that is spent on preparing for these things is amazing, but then the US is not exactly a standard to match either as so many schools waste so much time teaching for the test.
It's not just in the US, although it could be argued that it is the transplanted US practices which are partly responsible for the debacles both here and elsewhere, including the UK.
Educational Testing Services (ETS), known here for ToEFL and ToEIC exams, those multiple-choice monstrosities which pay absolutely no heed to cultural differences outside the white middle-classes of middle-America, have a five year contract with the UK's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
This has turned into a "fiasco".
Problems first began to emerge in October last year when some senior markers resigned over new approaches to the way the so-called Key Stage tests would be marked.
By early spring this year, teachers were reporting a series of administrative problems, including ETS failing to register their contract details, delays in training and the failure of a vetting system for English markers. To compound problems, completed papers were delayed in being sent to markers.
Incidentally, on this page, you're asked 'Who Is ETS?'
Not the correct 'Who Are ETS?' or 'What Is ETS?'
Answer: Educational Testing Service (ETS) is the largest private educational measurement organisation in the world today.
A Balls Up
That was in the lead up to the Scholarship Aptitude Tests taken by 11+ and 14+ year-olds this year. What has followed as a result is even worse, bearing in mind that entry to the next level of schooling is generally dependent on test results.
Thousands of schoolchildren may have to wait until the autumn for key test results after a company brought in to administer the tests failed to deliver on time.
The schools secretary, Ed Balls, has been forced to delay the publication of test results for 1.2 million pupils and set up an urgent independent inquiry to document the errors which have disrupted the marking of national SATs for 11- and 14-year-olds. Results had been expected at schools by Tuesday (July 1st). Most will now be a week late, but ministers last night admitted some pupils will not get their marks until after the summer holidays (in early September).
Education for Greed, Not Need
I became a teacher because I hated secondary school. I was a bright pupil in my primary school and the only blight I can recall was that Art was limited to one class taught by a Mr. Pasha and I was excluded.
My boys-only grammar school teachers were generally ex-armed forces personnel with that particular approach to discipline, one I hated. I can recall only two teachers who I recall as being 'enlightened'. The history teacher gave us the social context of events; unfortunately this wasn't tested, as key dates in terms of British imperialism were considered more important. The art teacher stretched our cloistered minds and took us took us to cinema clubs to see art films such as Cleo de 5 á 7.
When I graduated from a three year course at a teacher training college, art was my main subject, an interest that has continued, and later my inner-city students won many prizes at national exhibitions. Hopefully I encouraged my students to examine themselves in relation to their community and environment. I encouraged them to realise their innate potential and a self-belief as sensitive human beings giving something to the society they are part of.
Nowadays folk like Kalla would no doubt ask about the value of what I did, where was the profit, to which there is a simple answer.
For society to work, co-operation, rather than competition, is the key, with the main reward being personal satisfaction at a job well done. A level of humility is appropriate, although not obeisance and obsequiousness. It is right to mistrust those who seek to impose their value systems and morality on others, particularly when their own competence can be challenged.
The key is to take responsibility for one's own life - and allow others to do the same. For that, institutions of social control need to be controlled by society rather than those 'market forces' which operate outside society and seek to subvert cultures and communities to their own ends.
These ends too often lead to the end of the identities which bind us together.
Ignorant and Arrogant Kalla
Once again, the Vice President Yusuf Kalla, that mastermind of educational standards, has been taking potshots at parents and teachers. This time he has been talking about the Ujian Nasional (National Examinations).
These are set and administered by the Ministry of Education's Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (Institute/Board for National Education Standards). These are taken in SD (Elementary School, Grade 6, 11+), SMP (Junior High, Grade 9, 14+) and SMA (Senior High, Grade 12). In order to 'graduate' to the next level, which is university in the case of Grade 12 students, they must achieve a minimum average score of 5.25 in as many as six subjects, of which three, Maths, Indonesian and English are compulsory. Given regional ties and geopolitics, I do wonder why Mandarin isn't a higher priority.
Kalla says that the passing grade at 5.25 is still too low. After all, in Singapore it's 7.00 and in Malaysia it's 8.00.
Well, so ......?
As I've already stated, the national exams, being multi-choice, are designed for automatons trained in the art of guessing, although maybe it's not an art but a technology because it's not as if there are moves in education circles towards a population trained to be critical in their thinking.
Society is being trained to be acquiescent so that the likes of Kalla, Bakrie and other family conglomerates seemingly concerned with 'welfare' can enrich themselves at our expense. And we get the blame for the almighty cock-ups they've perpetrated on our behalf.
According to the Post, Kalla also says that teachers should teach the content that will be tested and students should know what is going to be tested. This could be interpreted as a licence to cheat.
However, I'll be fair and merely test one test.
I have a copy of this year's Junior High Ujian Nasional prepared for SMP. It is riddled with errors, too many to count, errors of collocation, syntax, spelling, punctuation, verb tenses and more. I reckon it's a good thing that the pass mark is "too low". And after all that, it merely tests basic reading skills and knowledge of synonyms. There are no writing, listening or oral components, which is probably just as well.
After all, if even the examiners can't pass it ....
Have a look at Question 7, which I've copied verbatim. What do you think is the correct answer?
..................................................
Read the following notice. It's put on the wall.
It means ...
-------A.----the place is special for you as visitors.
-------B.----this is a place for you to wait.
-------C.----you cannot wait anyone here.
-------D.----you should not stay here.
..................................................
Ignoring the fact that 'the' wall is not specified and the word 'for' is omitted from C, it seems obvious that C and D are not the right answers.
You'd probably correctly answer B, however, given that there are too many horrendous errors, that in one reading passage "Komala drowned ... and all of her guards could not save her" and that in another passage we are informed that there will be a wedding on "Friday, the thirthteenth of June", is A actually wrong?
So, Mr. Kalla, don't criticise parents who sue the Ministry of Education for failing their children, and don't criticise those teachers - again - who are really pissed off at being employed by a bunch of bureaucrats who think they have all the answers.
Which they probably do.
For a price.
..................................
Among the responses to the above post was this comment by Dr. Bruce:
The amount of classroom time that is spent on preparing for these things is amazing, but then the US is not exactly a standard to match either as so many schools waste so much time teaching for the test.
It's not just in the US, although it could be argued that it is the transplanted US practices which are partly responsible for the debacles both here and elsewhere, including the UK.
Educational Testing Services (ETS), known here for ToEFL and ToEIC exams, those multiple-choice monstrosities which pay absolutely no heed to cultural differences outside the white middle-classes of middle-America, have a five year contract with the UK's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
This has turned into a "fiasco".
Problems first began to emerge in October last year when some senior markers resigned over new approaches to the way the so-called Key Stage tests would be marked.
By early spring this year, teachers were reporting a series of administrative problems, including ETS failing to register their contract details, delays in training and the failure of a vetting system for English markers. To compound problems, completed papers were delayed in being sent to markers.
Incidentally, on this page, you're asked 'Who Is ETS?'
Not the correct 'Who Are ETS?' or 'What Is ETS?'
Answer: Educational Testing Service (ETS) is the largest private educational measurement organisation in the world today.
A Balls Up
That was in the lead up to the Scholarship Aptitude Tests taken by 11+ and 14+ year-olds this year. What has followed as a result is even worse, bearing in mind that entry to the next level of schooling is generally dependent on test results.
Thousands of schoolchildren may have to wait until the autumn for key test results after a company brought in to administer the tests failed to deliver on time.
The schools secretary, Ed Balls, has been forced to delay the publication of test results for 1.2 million pupils and set up an urgent independent inquiry to document the errors which have disrupted the marking of national SATs for 11- and 14-year-olds. Results had been expected at schools by Tuesday (July 1st). Most will now be a week late, but ministers last night admitted some pupils will not get their marks until after the summer holidays (in early September).
Education for Greed, Not Need
I became a teacher because I hated secondary school. I was a bright pupil in my primary school and the only blight I can recall was that Art was limited to one class taught by a Mr. Pasha and I was excluded.
My boys-only grammar school teachers were generally ex-armed forces personnel with that particular approach to discipline, one I hated. I can recall only two teachers who I recall as being 'enlightened'. The history teacher gave us the social context of events; unfortunately this wasn't tested, as key dates in terms of British imperialism were considered more important. The art teacher stretched our cloistered minds and took us took us to cinema clubs to see art films such as Cleo de 5 á 7.
When I graduated from a three year course at a teacher training college, art was my main subject, an interest that has continued, and later my inner-city students won many prizes at national exhibitions. Hopefully I encouraged my students to examine themselves in relation to their community and environment. I encouraged them to realise their innate potential and a self-belief as sensitive human beings giving something to the society they are part of.
Nowadays folk like Kalla would no doubt ask about the value of what I did, where was the profit, to which there is a simple answer.
For society to work, co-operation, rather than competition, is the key, with the main reward being personal satisfaction at a job well done. A level of humility is appropriate, although not obeisance and obsequiousness. It is right to mistrust those who seek to impose their value systems and morality on others, particularly when their own competence can be challenged.
The key is to take responsibility for one's own life - and allow others to do the same. For that, institutions of social control need to be controlled by society rather than those 'market forces' which operate outside society and seek to subvert cultures and communities to their own ends.
These ends too often lead to the end of the identities which bind us together.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Penabur's Disregard of Indonesia's Manpower Law - 1
Comments on Process of Termination of Employment JP and TC by BPK-Penabur.
(NB. All Articles quoted are taken from Act No.13, 2003, concerning Manpower)
Article 46.1
No worker of foreign citizenship is allowed to occupy positions that deal with personnel …..
- David Nesbit, the Teacher Co-ordinator who signed the letters of termination, is British.
Article 57
(1) A work agreement for a specified period of time shall be made in writing and must be written in the Indonesian language with Latin alphabets.
- Employment contracts were in English only.
(2) A work agreement for a specified period of time, if made against what is prescribed under subsection (1), shall be regarded as a work agreement for an unspecified period of time.
- NO contracts were issued to NETs by BPK-Penabur from January 2005 until June 2006.
Article 59.7
Any work agreement for a specified period of time that does not fulfill the requirements referred to
under subsections (1), (2), (4), (5) and (6) shall, by law, become a work agreement for an
unspecified period of time.
- Ergo: the initial employment agreements signed in August 2004 by Sonny Hartono, as the representative of BPK-Penabur (the First Party) and JP and TC (the Second Parties) remain valid for an unspecified period, or until the termination is agreed by both parties.
Article 151
(1)The entrepreneur, the worker and or the trade/labour union, and the government must make all efforts to prevent termination of employment from taking place.
- The termination of the employments of JP and TC were arbitrary, with no reasons given, nor were the procedures set out in August 2004 followed.
(2) If despite all efforts made termination of employment remains inevitable, then, the intention to carry out the termination of employment must be negotiated between the entrepreneur and the trade/labour union to which the affected worker belongs as member, or between the entrepreneur and the worker to be dismissed if the worker in question is not a union member.
- There was no discussion or recognized procedure, let alone ‘negotiation’. (cf. Article 161)
If the negotiation as referred to under subsection (2) fails to result in any agreement, the entrepreneur may only terminate the employment of the worker/ after receiving a decision [a permission to do so] from the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes.
- A statement reinforced in Articles 153.2 and 155.
Article 153.2
Any termination of employment that takes place for reasons referred to under subsection (1) (none of which apply to JP or TC) shall be declared null and void by law. The entrepreneur shall then be obliged to reemploy the affected worker.
- Or is obliged to continue paying the salaries and entitlements cf. Article 155.
Article 155
Any termination of employment without the decision of the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes as referred to under subsection (3) of Article 151 shall be declared null and void by law.
(2) As long as there is no decision from the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes, both the entrepreneur and the worker/ labourer must keep on performing their obligations.
The entrepreneur may violate what is stipulated under subsection (2) above by suspending the worker/ labourer who is still in the process of having his/her employment terminated provided that the entrepreneur continues to pay the worker’s wages and other entitlements that he/she normally receives.
- NO payment has been made to either Second Party, not even that promised by BPK-Penabur in its letter of termination. Furthemore, BPK-Penabur has refused - in writing - to process the documentation necessary for residence and employment in Indonesia.
Article 161
In case the worker violates the provisions that are specified under his or her individual work agreement, the enterprise’s rules and regulations, or the enterprise’s collective work agreement, the entrepreneur may terminate his or her employment after the entrepreneur precedes it with the issuance of the first, second and third warning letters consecutively.
- No such letters were ever issued, nor were discussions held.
Respect for Employees by Employers and Legal Protection
Article 32.2
Job placement shall be directed to place people available for work in the right job or position which best suits their skills, trade, capability, talents, interest and ability by observing their dignity and rights as human beings as well as [providing them with] legal protection.
- BPK-Penabur has long had a reputation for treating its teaching staff, both local Indonesian and expatriate staff, with disrespect and intimidation. The summary dismissals within UPI are but one example.
Article 35.3
In employing people who are available for a job, the employers are under an obligation to provide [them with] protection, which shall include protection for their welfare, safety and health, both mental and physical.
- No health insurance was made available to expatriate staff in BPK-Penabur’s UPI programme from August 2004 - July 2006. During this period, at least one employee of UPI was summarily dismissed because of his ill health.
Article 86
Every worker has the right to receive:
Repatriation
Article 48
Employers who employ workers of foreign citizenship are under an obligation to repatriate the workers of foreign citizenship to their countries of origin after their employment comes to an end.
- At no time has BPK-Penabur complied with this Article, not even for three teachers recruited in Australia.
(NB. All Articles quoted are taken from Act No.13, 2003, concerning Manpower)
Article 46.1No worker of foreign citizenship is allowed to occupy positions that deal with personnel …..
- David Nesbit, the Teacher Co-ordinator who signed the letters of termination, is British.
Article 57
(1) A work agreement for a specified period of time shall be made in writing and must be written in the Indonesian language with Latin alphabets.
- Employment contracts were in English only.
(2) A work agreement for a specified period of time, if made against what is prescribed under subsection (1), shall be regarded as a work agreement for an unspecified period of time.
- NO contracts were issued to NETs by BPK-Penabur from January 2005 until June 2006.
Article 59.7
Any work agreement for a specified period of time that does not fulfill the requirements referred to
under subsections (1), (2), (4), (5) and (6) shall, by law, become a work agreement for an
unspecified period of time.
- Ergo: the initial employment agreements signed in August 2004 by Sonny Hartono, as the representative of BPK-Penabur (the First Party) and JP and TC (the Second Parties) remain valid for an unspecified period, or until the termination is agreed by both parties.
Article 151
(1)The entrepreneur, the worker and or the trade/labour union, and the government must make all efforts to prevent termination of employment from taking place.
- The termination of the employments of JP and TC were arbitrary, with no reasons given, nor were the procedures set out in August 2004 followed.
(2) If despite all efforts made termination of employment remains inevitable, then, the intention to carry out the termination of employment must be negotiated between the entrepreneur and the trade/labour union to which the affected worker belongs as member, or between the entrepreneur and the worker to be dismissed if the worker in question is not a union member.
- There was no discussion or recognized procedure, let alone ‘negotiation’. (cf. Article 161)
If the negotiation as referred to under subsection (2) fails to result in any agreement, the entrepreneur may only terminate the employment of the worker/ after receiving a decision [a permission to do so] from the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes.
- A statement reinforced in Articles 153.2 and 155.
Article 153.2
Any termination of employment that takes place for reasons referred to under subsection (1) (none of which apply to JP or TC) shall be declared null and void by law. The entrepreneur shall then be obliged to reemploy the affected worker.
- Or is obliged to continue paying the salaries and entitlements cf. Article 155.
Article 155
Any termination of employment without the decision of the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes as referred to under subsection (3) of Article 151 shall be declared null and void by law.
(2) As long as there is no decision from the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes, both the entrepreneur and the worker/ labourer must keep on performing their obligations.
The entrepreneur may violate what is stipulated under subsection (2) above by suspending the worker/ labourer who is still in the process of having his/her employment terminated provided that the entrepreneur continues to pay the worker’s wages and other entitlements that he/she normally receives.
- NO payment has been made to either Second Party, not even that promised by BPK-Penabur in its letter of termination. Furthemore, BPK-Penabur has refused - in writing - to process the documentation necessary for residence and employment in Indonesia.
Article 161
In case the worker violates the provisions that are specified under his or her individual work agreement, the enterprise’s rules and regulations, or the enterprise’s collective work agreement, the entrepreneur may terminate his or her employment after the entrepreneur precedes it with the issuance of the first, second and third warning letters consecutively.
- No such letters were ever issued, nor were discussions held.
Respect for Employees by Employers and Legal Protection
Article 32.2
Job placement shall be directed to place people available for work in the right job or position which best suits their skills, trade, capability, talents, interest and ability by observing their dignity and rights as human beings as well as [providing them with] legal protection.
- BPK-Penabur has long had a reputation for treating its teaching staff, both local Indonesian and expatriate staff, with disrespect and intimidation. The summary dismissals within UPI are but one example.
Article 35.3
In employing people who are available for a job, the employers are under an obligation to provide [them with] protection, which shall include protection for their welfare, safety and health, both mental and physical.
- No health insurance was made available to expatriate staff in BPK-Penabur’s UPI programme from August 2004 - July 2006. During this period, at least one employee of UPI was summarily dismissed because of his ill health.
Article 86
Every worker has the right to receive:
- Occupational safety and health protection;
- Protection against immorality and indecency;
- Treatment that shows respect to human dignity and religious values.
Repatriation
Article 48
Employers who employ workers of foreign citizenship are under an obligation to repatriate the workers of foreign citizenship to their countries of origin after their employment comes to an end.
- At no time has BPK-Penabur complied with this Article, not even for three teachers recruited in Australia.
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