Performing Monkeys

International-Standard Pilot Project Schools

2011-10-29T19:00:00.001+07:00

The following are short articles taken from the Jakarta Post in the past couple of weeks. The notion of a strata of schools for the children of rich parents has caused concern for some time, especially as the schools' management bodies are able to charge high fees - and national schools are not supposed to charge any. That the quality of education provided is in no way comparable to that provided by genuine international schools, originally established for the children of expatriate parents.

An editorial in the Jakarta Post in March last year (2010) closed with these remarks.

It is the task of all elements in this country to improve the quality of our education, which ranks low even among Asian countries. Therefore, we appreciate the number of corporations that run schools, including those with international standards.

However, it is also unwise for the government to push certain schools, including state ones, to open the international standards of services in the absence of proper educational infrastructure and teaching staff who meet the requirements set for such schools. Besides, we need all categories of schools to serve society’s various demands.

Obviously, judging by the following news articles, no-one in the Department of Education reads the Post.

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Teachers to request review of RSBI schools

Retno Listyarti, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Federated Teachers Union (FSGI) says the FSGI will request a judicial review of the National Educational System Law that administers international-standard pilot project schools (RSBI).

Several NGOs would join the union in backing the review, Retno said, including the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), and the Education Coalition.

The review request would challenge article 50 of the law, which obliges every regency or city to have an RSBI school, Retno said as reported by tempointeraktif.com.

The presence of the RBSI schools has irked critics, who claim that the schools segregate students from different economic backgrounds.

There have been huge disparities between the facilities for traditional and international students. While international program classrooms are typically equipped with posh tables and chairs, only second-rate facilities are available for regular track students, even within the same school.

Retno, a teacher at SMAN 13 Jakarta said an international-class student at the state high school could pay up to Rp 31 million (US$3,500) a year in fees and tuition.

“Education should be based on our values and culture. It should not be like airline flights, where there are economy and executive classes,” Retno said on Tuesday.

RSBI schools prone to corruption: Activists

The establishment of international standard pilot-project schools (RSBI) not only widens the gap between the affluent and the poor, but opens new corruption opportunities, activists say.

“There are many findings that point to potential corruption,” said Febri Hendri from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), regarding documents consisting of SMPN 1 state junior high school’s budget and its cash book for the 2010/2011 academic year at the Jakarta Education Agency on Thursday.

ICW and the Alliance of Parents Concerned with Indonesian Education (APPI) visited the agency to submit a proof of corruption indication report on SMPN 1 in Cikini, Central Jakarta.

RSBI is a category of state schools in the process of achieving international standard school (SBI) status. Unlike regular state schools, RSBIs can charge parents monthly fees.

Febri said on Oct. 18 2010, for example, the school spent Rp 1 million (US$117) of unallocated funds on Central Jakarta RSBI supervisors as incentives, which the ICW viewed as gratuity fees. The school also provided Rp 9 million in transportation funds to a certain monitoring, evaluation and supervision team.

“What is this for? If the priority is supervision of SMPN 1, why is the money going this way?” he said.

Febri read out a total of 16 oddities and potential corruption cases in the school’s treasury accounts.

SMPN 1 is one of four RSBI schools in the region that refused to disclose their accountability report and planned expenditure budget, which the Central Information Commission (KIP) has officially categorized as public information.

SMAN 70 Jakarta senior high school in South Jakarta, another of the four schools under scrutiny, has also raised suspicions on matters of discretion.

Musni Umar, a parent and SMAN 70 school committee member, said the same situation was occurring at his child’s school. “We will take it to the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK].”

Education agency deputy chief Agus Suradika promised to look into the case. “We will study the documents and announce our response in 14-days time at the latest,” he said.

There are 10 RSBI senior high schools in Jakarta of a total 117 senior high schools. There are 11 RSBI junior high schools of 287 and 7 RSBI elementary schools of more than 2,000.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has recently ordered an evaluation of RSBI schools following complaints regarding the schools’ failure to achieve superior academic achievement.

RSBI schools ‘worsen’ social divide

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) has urged the government to change its international standard school funding policy, which it says widens the gap between rich and poor students.

Only children from affluent families can afford international-standard schools (SBI) and international-standard pilot project schools (RSBI). Ironically, these schools receive more government funding, instead of the poorer schools that definitely need more attention, said FITRA investigation and advocacy coordinator Uchok Sky Khadafi in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“This very unjust and discriminating policy will prompt regional administrations to compete in opening SBIs and RSBIs so they can earn block grants from the central government,” Uchok said.

“And this will cause those regional administrations to spend more on those international standard schools and at the same time abandon schools in outlying areas that actually need more money from the regional budgets.”

Uchok added that the government had allocated Rp 242 billion (US$27.35 million) to SBI and RSBI schools next year and only Rp 108 billion for regular schools, even though the latter constituted the majority.

Penabur - Contemptible and Criminal Christians

2011-08-17T07:00:00.005+07:00

I can't change the past, but I have a chance to create my future. I can't go back and turn back the time. I can't change what I've done ..."

fr. Susiana Gunawan Friendster profile

That is not 100% true.

For a start, you can do what the Supreme Court has mandated you to do (Putusan No. 576 K/PDT.SUS/2008). Your failure to do so leaves you liable to a term of imprisonment for contempt of court.

You may think that you can hide behind the Penabur Board of Governors, but they will hang you out to dry because you are the person who signed letters which admit to illegal acts, such as the non-payment of tax and the refusal to issue exit permits. the employment of expatriates on tourist and business visas, and much else.

You are also named as the 'registrant' of upi-edu.com, albeit a defunct website, and you remain as 'business manager' of UPI, although no one seems quite sure what that entails. Presumably you are responsible for the recent recruitment advertisements in the Jakarta Post. These are de facto evidence that UPI continues to contravene prevailing regulations regarding the employment of "Qualified Native English Teachers".

I should not have to spell out to you what those regulations are, but for those reading this email via the Bcc facility I refer you to 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.

I'm not seeking vengeance but merely what is owed according to the contract I signed in good faith with Ukrida Penabur International. Article 7 refers to Terms and Conditions, including termination of employment. Article 10 states that "the laws of Indonesia govern this Contract of employment and the determination of any disputes or claims arising in relation thereto." The Supreme Court has ruled against UPI so in not settling matters with me (and Jac Poelemans) you are acting in contempt of court.

I am writing to you in good faith, expecting you to settle forthwith. As well as the sum stated in the Supreme Court ruling, plus the interest on that sum accrued in the two or so years since that ruling, there is the unpaid salary for work done prior to my arbitrary and unlawful dismissal, my legal entitlements under the law pending the settlement of this case (including medical), and the sorting out of my residence permit with the Department of Immigration.

When dealing with the latter issue, you may wish to refer them to the letter from my lawyers, SH & R, dated 23rd November 2009, ref no:158/SHR/PV/11/2009, which informed them of your liability in law for my current situation until you have settled up according to the Supreme Court ruling referred to above. Your lawyers, Petrus Selestinus, will have a copy of that letter, and I separately informed the British Consulate of the situation. They are the Cc'd recipients of this email.

This has gone on long enough, so, Suzi, it's up to you, lah.

You would do well to read and inwardly digest your Bible, particularly Ezekiel 18 and Romans 12:19. However, in case you decide to ignore this, then let me assure you that if I do not hear from you or any of the board members before August 17th - the second anniversary of the publication of the Supreme Court's decision - then some of the contents of my book, Penabur - Contemptible and Criminal Christians has already been pre-scheduled for posting online on that date. Although my blog Performing Monkeys carries my opinions about your contemptible and morally corrupt management, I have yet to post any of the documents which demonstrate beyond any doubt Penabur's contempt for Indonesia's laws.

When I do, rest assured that the link will be sent to not only include the good folk Bcc'd to this email but also to the media and the mailing lists of Penabur congregations throughout Indonesia.

Terry Collins
B.Ed. CTEFL

Granting Permission for Foreign National Teachers

2010-10-25T05:44:00.001+07:00

"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"?

TEFL on the rocks?

2010-10-22T14:04:00.001+07:00

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!

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.
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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 current problems faced by the majority of non-Indonesian English teachers here in Indonesia was, however, forecast back in February on the Living in Indonesia forum.

Give Kids A Break

2010-06-02T11:30:00.006+07:00

Four students have been expelled from a senior high school in Riau, South Sumatra, for 'defaming' their teacher on Facebook. The comments were reportedly of a personal nature and offensive to women.

The school's deputy principal, Yose Rizal, said the students' failure to complete and submit homework assignments to the teacher contributed to the decision to dismiss them. Yose said he hoped the decision would send a strong message to other students that such behavior was not acceptable.

That says a lot about what is wrong with the Indonesia's schooling system, especially as the subject that the teacher was supposedly charged with teaching is 'Life Skills'.

Come to think of it, that is what all teachers (and parents) are responsible for inculcating. As a teacher and parent I do know that adults make 'mistakes', but then there is little guidance for us either.

Competition is praised above co-operation so that societal prerogatives are determined by online social networks rather than leadership for the common good.

Public transport is privately owned, as is the water supply, and garbage isn't properly managed so residents, of all classes, dispose of it willy-nilly.

The current national census cannot be completed as scheduled because rich folks in their enclaves deny access to officials because they have something, their ill-gotten wealth, to hide.

And kids get blamed for not following the rules!

The results of the remedial tests following the senior high school ujian monyet have been announced. Teachers in Yogya are angry because of the "premature announcement", but they are missing the point.

Out of 150,410 students who had to sit the repeat national exams, how come only 11,814 'failed'? How is it possible to master the 'facts' tested in such a short while since the original exams were sat in March? Are these remedial tests easier? If so, why weren't the set of March exams?

One contributing factor is that the educators and bureaucrats responsible for the whole debacle are lacking in any semblance of awareness of how teenagers think. I'm not suggesting that they should be neuro-scientists, but applying the academic skill of research - a skill which their positions of power indicate they should have - would give them a modicum of insight into how teenagers think.

For a start, Dr. Paul Kelley, headteacher of a high school in northern England and author of Making Minds: What's Wrong With Education?, says that creating long-term memories is at the core of education.

In 2005, a key discovery was published in Scientific American explaining how long-term memories are formed in the brain. Douglas Fields, of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and his team in the US not only revealed exactly how long-term memories are formed but also, more significantly for teachers, how they can be created. The biological basis of a memory is a pathway of cells linked within the brain. His team looked at how these pathways were formed and how each cell was "switched on" and became linked to other cells.

Surprisingly, constant stimulation of the cell did not make it switch on. Stimulation had to be separated by gaps when the cell was not stimulated. The breakthrough came when the team began to realise the length of stimulation was not vital, but the gap between stimulations

So Dr. Kelly and his teaching staff established 'spaced learning' which works no matter what subject you are teaching. In spaced learning, you have 10-minute breaks between three intensive sessions of 15-20 minutes teaching. In each of the sessions, you repeat material but present it differently, deepening and extending it.

In the breaks students might juggle, play basketball or model animals out of Play-Doh. These distracter activities leave the cells to carry out chemical processes.

Or access their Facebook accounts?

An English expression has it that 'procrastination is the thief of time', but I prefer to think of an Indonesian cup of coffee in which the grounds take time to settle at the bottom of the cup. That is an apt description of the process of leaning; one must allow time for the absorption of new information, and breaks are certainly one key to successful learning.

A different approach to the 'chalk and talk' methodology is also required. Rather than 'preaching' or lecturing ('hectoring' may be a better word) with theoretical 'knowledge' to be copied from the classroom white/blackboard, teachers need to offer students more opportunities for experiment and for inductive learning.

Allowing socialised discussions between students in the lessons would be a good start!

Further reinforcement for Dr. Kelley's pedagogical approach is offered by more recent research.

According to Dr. Iroise Dumontheil of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, one of the authors of the research to be published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, "It's not the fault of teenagers that they can't concentrate and are easily distracted. It's to do with the structure of their brains. Adolescents simply don't have the same mental capacities as an adult because teenagers are still children."

I think that's similar to my problem too; although I think like an adult, I remain a kid at heart.

You’ve got to have standards

2010-03-31T00:00:00.001+07:00

Especially if you're spending the money of Indonesia's rakyat (citizenry) on full colour quarter page ads in the Jakarta Post.

Wikipedia has this to say about Bank Rakyat Indonesia (tr. People's Bank of Indonesia).

It is one of the larger banks in Indonesia. It specialises in small scale and microfinance style borrowing from and lending to its approximately 30 million retail clients through its over 4,000 branches, units and rural service posts. It also has a comparatively small, but growing, corporate business.

It is currently 70% government owned operating company (Persero) and has been government owned for the entire period since the war of independence (1945 to 1949) to November 2003, when 30% of its shares were sold through an IPO.

And this is what BRI has to say to its "small scale and microfinance style" clientele.

Fly Anywhere with your Reserved Private Aircraft

Proudly present a new and exclusive reservation service to
fly with private aircraft to any destination you would like to go.

Enjoy convenience at it's truly means as our special customer

Term & Condition apply

BRI Prioritas
Untuk Pribadi Terpilih (tr.For 'Choice' People)

I'm going to ignore the appalling English and not going to wonder about the singular term and condition. However, it is worth noting that of late society seems unable to focus on what really matters.
For example, note the use of the word bule in this headline: Selundupkan Biji Ganja Bule Jerman Dibekuk (White German Marijuana Smuggler Arrested)

As a regular reader (Hi Del) commented, "What if the guy was black? How would they get round that? Interesting that you're a "bule" first and a "orang" second."

This surface attention is widespread.

A number of schools have taken to labelling themselves as "International", which is strange as they are extremely unlikely to have expatriate students or even come close to what they advertise.

A number of complaints in the media, such as those I highlighted here seem to have forced the government to take action. As per usual, they're missing the point and leaving many educators confused.

A 2009 education ministerial, which will come into force on March 30, 2010, stipulates that the curricula applied at international schools must cover the teaching of religion, civics and the Indonesian language. The teaching of these three subjects must be conducted in Indonesian.

There are a number of International Schools in Indonesia which were established during the Suharto era to provide schooling for the children of peripatetic expatriate workers, generally 'consultants' and managerial staff working for multi-national companies, such as oil companies. Parallel schools in other countries offered a continuity of education for these children.

Leading up to, and especially following the Asian Economic Meltdown of the late 90s (and known as krismon here) jobs were expected to be 'Indonesianised' through a "transfer of technology". Naturally, the school rolls tumbled. Because they were expected to be financially self-sufficient, many schools began to accept the children of better off Indonesians who would otherwise be sending their children to study in Singapore.

Mistakes were certainly made. After all, the Jakarta International School (JIS) should not have accepted the young son of Theo Toemion, the then chairman of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, who assaulted the 14 year old referee of his 7 year old son's basketball match and executives from U.S. companies including ExxonMobil, Nike, Unocal and ConocoPhillips.

Theo was subsequently jailed for massive corruption. Presumably some of his ill-gotten gains found their way into the coffers of JIS.

And such is the amount of such spare cash floating around that a number of private schools, including Penabur, which charge high fees for teaching to the test, decided to cream off some of it by opening so-called 'international classes' in their regular schools.

A few white faces, never mind the qualifications - even naval chefs will do - and a few foreign course books, mainly from Singapore, and they had ready made glossy advertising.

But it's all gone wrong. There are few schools which offer - and I'm quoting from a recent job ad - active, student-centered learning and facilitate active exploration,discovery and interaction with people and materials. That this ad was placed by a school which is apparently Leading the Human Development Paradigm does not necessarily mean anything other than that they hiding behind buzzwords with little sense of what they mean. After all, they have a very high staff turnover.

Every time there is a new Minister of Education we hear tell of a new curriculum. New partnerships are formed with companies which rebuild a few rural schools in the name of corporate social responsibility, and other minor tinkerings take place, yet aesthetics have yet to take over from bean counting.

A recent editorial in the Jakarta Post closed with these remarks.

It is the task of all elements in this country to improve the quality of our education, which ranks low even among Asian countries. Therefore, we appreciate the number of corporations that run schools, including those with international standards.

However, it is also unwise for the government to push certain schools, including state ones, to open the international standards of services in the absence of proper educational infrastructure and teaching staff who meet the requirements set for such schools. Besides, we need all categories of schools to serve society’s various demands.

I only half agree with these fine sentiments because they don't go far enough. It is my contention that if Indonesia, by which I mean all sectors of society concerned with schools and the nature of education, and not merely with upgrading the nation's schooling to an 'international' level, should establish an independent commission. This would have the remit to establish curricula for schools which take into account the multi-cultural distinctiveness of the country, the disparity between the regions in terms of economic resources, and the multiple-intelligences of students.

The commission should also oversee the establishment of a "proper educational infrastructure" including an overhaul of teacher training so that all teachers (including expatriates) are suitably qualified and are given regular professional back up and subject updates.

The Department of Education, whilst continuing to administrate, would also need 'supervision' to ensure that funds are not 'mislaid' and that targets are met. Above all, procedures and priorities should not be subject to whim of political (or business) appointees who invariably have short-term goals.

This will all inevitably take longer than a government's term of office, but a dynamic country needs people with vision.

It's a myopic malaise which has resulted in the current concern over the educational standards which ill-serve the rakyat.

They also don't need crap ads offering a private plane ride.

National Exams are A-U-D-F-C-K-E-G

2010-03-26T09:00:00.000+07:00

This week, six million grade 12 senior high school students have been undergoing the unnecessary yet ritual torture of 'graduation' tests.

Our Kid is at home today, as are most grades 7 and 8 junior high school students. He'll be at home all next week as well because grade 9s have to go through the same robotic hell, using a 2B pencil to fill in little circles which are scanned by computer.

Unnecessary? Of course they are because the only teaching of 'relevance' these students receive in the preceding months is geared to answering the test questions, many of which are, as I've often noted, badly formulated with possible multiple correct answers or none at all.

The following headlines gleaned from the Jakarta Post tell the tale.

Tuesday 23 March
- Despite 'leaks', first day of national exams goes smoothly.
- Leaks, problems mar national final exam

Wednesday 24 March
- National exams still problematic*

Thursday 25 March
- Schools urged to have post-exam cooldown period
(for students suffering stress.)

Friday 26 March
- Students from across the country to take UGM tests.

Yogya's University of Gadjah Mada will hold entrance exams on Sunday, thus demonstrating that the national exams are of no value in determining who goes on to further education.

*The same problems crop up every year. These include misdirected packages of exam papers, sets of answers being sold, answers being sent by text message, teachers changing students' answer sheets, and students unable to take test due to sickness or pregnancy and uncertain whether they can take them at a later date. .

Fellow blogger, Harry Nizam, has suggested that my posts are rarely positive but, hey, here's a positive suggestion for the cooling down period.

Let them play games and Countdown, a popular TV game show which tests vocabulary and maths, can be easily adapted for classroom use.

This is a screengrab from Tuesday's show.

The Intelligence(s) of Bureaucrats

2010-02-21T18:00:00.000+07:00

It's not just here in Indonesia that the ujian monyet exists.

[In the USA and Canada], students entering university can't read and write properly and are often required to take extra curricular courses during the freshman year of university in order to make up.

...... the system [in the UK] is unsatisfactory. The student may reach twenty years of age and has only been expected to increase his memory. He is not required to think until attempting a Masters. It seems a bit late in the day unless all we are trying to do is provide accountants, engineers, etc., for the commercial system.

That these comments are from an article in the UK Guardian is of little comfort because I do feel bad.

As a parent here in Indonesia, I have to help, and pay for extra help, so my 13 year old son can master test skills, to memorise irrelevant 'facts' decreed by bureaucrats in their offices rather than his teachers at the black or white boards; they are akin to front-line infantry troops who bear the burdens of 'failure' master-minded by armchair generals.

Our Kid's best 'scores' come in unquantifiable 'arts' subjects, Art, Music, and languages (inc. Sundanese) which, apart from English and Indonesian, are not part of the national exams, so he isn't going to become an accountant or engineer.

Most students don't. Or can't.

Many graduates in the UK and here fail to find work in their chosen disciplines, or are 'forced' to work as unpaid interns for 'trial' periods with no hope of permanent employment.

As I and countless others have written, learning how to 'pass' a test is the underlying fault. The tests are made by humans yet are set purely for their ease in marking - by computers. 'Garbage in, garbage out' is an expression not heard much since the early days of personal computing, yet it has never been truer than now.

This trend has its roots in mid-70's at the dawn of the 'free trade-globalisation' era, with the primary aim of turning us all into consumers. Conglomerates are robot tradesmen which aim to sell to ever younger purchasers of their products. (There was a time when comfort was more important than style, so why does Our Kid scorn Adidas trainers in favour of Reebok's?*)

Conformity may have a value in societies governed by rigid, authoritarian regimes, but Indonesia is suffering the growing pains of an emerging democracy with the freedom to express opinions and has no need of mechanised, roboticised, lobotomised 'norms'.

Now that the internet offers boundless information as 'facts', it is little wonder that, much as it may be criticised, plagiarism plagues universities and schools.

Teaching for computerised tests does little to encourage originality of thought or action. Personal experience is a major key to critical reasoning and forming judgements, yet school children are not expected to assume individual responsibility for their actions. They are too busy memorising largely irrelevant information with little context in their daily lives or, indeed, their futures.

Current teachers and bureaucrats were students during Suharto's New Order when dissent was actively discouraged so, although some do, most cannot (yet) be expected to expand and enhance the mandated curriculum, much as they may wish to.

So what is the alternative?

Simply put, it is for society to recognise the freedom to be different, to explore and to be creative. After all, we have different aptitudes drawn from our genetic sources and (hopefully) fostered through our home environments.

In 1983, Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, developed the theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be adequately assessed by standard psychometric instruments (i.e. tests).

He originally proposed seven intelligences, later adding 'Naturalist', and more recently a ninth, Existential ('reality smart' - the ability and tendency to pose and ponder questions about life, death, and ultimate realities, generally first manifested among teenagers in their search for identity.)

I've added the possible careers of those folk whose strongest intelligence is as indicated.

Linguistic (‘word smart’ - writers, public speakers, teachers, and actors):
Logical-mathematical (‘number/reasoning smart’ - scientists, computer programmers, lawyers or accountants)
Spatial (‘picture smart’ - builders, graphic artists, architects, cartographers, sculptors)
Bodily-Kinesthetic (‘body smart’ - athletes, surgeons, dancers, inventors)
Musical (‘music smart’ - composers, singers, songwriters, music teachers)
Interpersonal (‘people smart’ - peacemakers, teachers, therapists, salespeople)
Intrapersonal (‘self smart’ - philosophers, psychiatrists, religious leaders)
Naturalist (‘nature smart’ - environmentalists, botanists, farmers, biologists)

We each have all intelligences but no two individuals have them in the same exact configuration - similar to our fingerprints. Hence the need for schools, charged with fostering future generations of useful citizens, to accommodate differences and to enable each student to discover and to reach for his or her potential.

A major overhaul of school curricula is required, rather than piecemeal tinkering. I can therefore only offer faint praise to SBY's newish Minister of Education, Muhammad Nuh, who has talked of introducing an entrepreneurship-based curriculum for the 2010-2011 academic year.

He said that the substance of the entrepreneurship-based curriculum would be included in the curriculum of each level of education. [It} would not overhaul the previous curriculum but an entrepreneurship substance would be included in it.

Basically the entrepreneurship curriculum was aimed at instilling entrepreneurship characters to students, including flexibility to think, creativities (sic), innovation and sense of willing to know.
“The first thing that has to be formed with students is flexibility in thinking because this will generate their creativities. One will not be creative if he or she is rigid in thinking.”

I'll leave it to you to work out which 'intelligence' is manifested by most bureaucrats.
.........................................
*Nike apparel is banned in Jakartass Towers until Nike unequivocally confirms that locally-owned factories manufacturing their products conform to the minimum requirements of Indonesian employment regulations.

Parents demand refunds from school over alleged deception

2010-02-11T14:52:00.002+07:00

In September 2008, Sungkono Sadikin wrote a letter to Kompass complaining about the deception practiced by BPK Penabur in its so-called 'International School' in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

I doubt that he received much joy, but then his complaints were centred around the lack of qualifications of the staff and that he didn't get the 'service' he expected as, it appeared, the management were "arogan".

That is not unexpected as this thread amplifies.

Today, I was pleasantly surprised* to read the following article in the Jakarta Post.

Having spent thousands of dollars registering his 6-year-old son at BPK Penabur International School in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, in 2008, businessman David Wongso was expecting to see his son’s education handled by professionals, he says.

However, David began to question the school’s credibility over the next few months when he found extensive English grammatical errors in his son’s worksheets from the school.

“Initially I just thought it was typos, but when I saw similar mistakes happening again over the following days I realized there could be something wrong with the quality of the school’s teachers,” he said.

David was among three parents who reported the 60-year-old BPK Penabur institution last year to police for deception.

After registering his son at the institution’s newly opened international school, David said he had felt deceived at information presented in the school’s promotional leaflet and magazine advertisement.

According to the ad and pamphlet, the school held a license from Cambridge University to apply its international curriculum. While the school did employ several native-English-speaking teachers, the claim about the license was not true, he said.

“After we checked the school’s status with the Cambridge representative for the Asia-Pacific region, we were surprised to find that it hadn’t got their official license yet,” he said, adding that he and 17 parents of first-grader students had subsequently requested the school return their money.

David had spent a total of US$5,700 — comprising $3,000 for an entrance fee and $2,700 for 9 months’ tuition.

The request, however, was rejected, forcing most of the parents to keep their children enrolled at the school.

It was only David and three other parents who finally moved their children to another school in early 2009.

BPK Penabur chairman Robert Robianto, however, said it was impossible for the school to return the parents’ money because it was their decision to register their children at the school.

He also denied allegations that the school had no license to run a Cambridge-based curriculum, saying it had secured a license for their international school in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, in 2006.

“We also secured [a Cambridge] license for our international school in Kelapa Gading,” he told the Jakarta Post.

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta Post

Three years ago, Ukrida Penabur Internasional, the programme employing expatriate teachers in Jakarta, there were but two qualified school teachers out of around 16 'teachers'. and not all even had the minimal qualification of a Certificate of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CTEFL), which takes a mere five weeks to obtain.

Furthermore, Penabur does not have an international school per se. For that, they need approval from the country which sponsors it. In Jakarta, there are British, Japanese, French, German, Australian, New Zealand, Korean and Pakistani International Schools, and probably a few I've overlooked, whose staff may well have diplomatic passports.

It is largely irrelevant that Penabur has a licence from Cambridge University. This only gives permission to use a specific overseas curriculum. There are several good schools which have such a licence, but they are properly known as National Plus schools and to be acknowledged as such should meet the stringent criteria supervised and certified by the Association of National Plus Schools, as well as the overseas licence provider.

Unless Penabur has taken drastic steps in the past three years and grown substantially since establishing "international classes" which were embedded in and used the facilities of the already established schools in Tanjung Duren and Kelapa Gading, then they have no right to call themselves National Plus Schools, let alone label what they do as "International".
......................
*I say that I was pleasantly surprised only because it enhances my own case regarding the unfair dismissal of a colleague and I some three years ago. We won but are still awaiting the payout awarded by the Supreme Court.

Our lawyers have informed us that Penabur wish to continue their fight against us, even though there is no avenue for appeal, let alone grounds.

Whereas David Wongso is pursuing his case through police channels, we are considering a civil case as we have documentary evidence of visa and contract irregularities, tax avoidance, and intimidation of staff - both local and expatriate - as well as the financial deception of university students.

You would be hard-pressed to find any parents or staff connected with Penabur who do not have a measure of grievance.The few who don't are those whose charges win 'prestigious' prizes in various competitions and do well in the mechanical, knowledge-based multi-choice tests.

2009-08-19T17:30:00.002+07:00

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.

Fired Penabur Teacher Is Cause Celebré

2008-09-17T16:48:00.002+07:00

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.

Angry Students Write About Penabur

2008-09-11T16:00:00.006+07:00

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

An Angry Parent Writes to Kompas

2008-09-09T08:30:00.000+07:00

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

Indonesia: Cultural and historical baggage

2008-07-30T10:00:00.001+07:00

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
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DJ tells that he has "since discovered several women professors in the better unis."

Examining The Examiners

2008-07-05T00:30:00.004+07:00

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.

Penabur's Disregard of Indonesia's Manpower Law - 1

2008-06-10T09:00:00.000+07:00

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:

Occupational safety and health protection;
Protection against immorality and indecency;
Treatment that shows respect to human dignity and religious values.

- TC was fired during the Muslim fasting month, just prior to Idul Fitri. It was known that his family are Muslim.

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.

A Few Wise Comments About The Whys

2008-05-15T15:30:00.002+07:00

With your no doubt vast experience of Indonesia and matters Indonesian, I always felt that your court case rather like second marriages, represented the 'triumph of hope over experience'.

Perhaps in this case it would have been better to have adopted the adage of 'don't explain, don't complain - get even'.

As far as the judgement goes it might have serious implications for the average Indonesian wage slave - but then how many of them can afford to take Balinese vacations? I'm sure that your indignation is real but is it righteous (or should that be the other way round?).

Just a thought!

Anon (but presumably Antisthenes - see below)
| "May 13, 2008, 8:50 am" | #
............................

Good points Anon (but presumably Antisthenes), but let me say that finding time and credit in order to meet one's first grandchild has to take precedence over other matters. It was also the first time we have left Jakarta in nearly two years!

As for Indonesians affording Bali, you'd be surprised how crowded it apparently gets during the school holidays. We were told that this year June/July will be virtually sold out.

As for second marriages or, as in my case, third, let me say that this one has lasted a darn sight longer. Practice makes (near) perfect?

And, yes, the judgment does have implications for EVERY employee in this country. But should I have lain down and accepted totally illegal, even criminal, actions against me, and seemingly every other employee in their employ.

Note that an Indonesian SD (elementary) teacher brought a similar case before the court at the same time and she lost too. We expats do, however, have the precedent of a Singapore International School expat teacher winning a very similar case last year.

Penabur's intimidatory actions - they refused our final pay cheques or to process our residence papers/visas etc. unless we dropped our legal process - will probably be the subject of criminal actions. After all, I am a virtual prisoner here, albeit with the full knowledge of Immigration HQ and my embassy.

Finally, consider the implications for foreign investors here: if there are no certainties about employment practices, then there will be (further) anarchy.

Expect to hear a lot more about this.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 9:28 am" | #
............................

This is Indonesia; wake up! You only get what you bribe in the law courts and expats are powerless; your KITAS is for year and entitles you to be employed on a limited basis as an "advisor". You don't have any rights in this country and you are wasting your time I'm afraid.

Going to the supreme court? A bunch of expat teachers...a howler!

Anonymous | "May 15, 2008, 12:22 pm" | #
............................

"You don't have any rights in this country"?

That is deeply flawed cynicism, Anon. So you are saying that Indonesian housemaids in, say, Malaysia and Hong Kong, who are the subject of an ASEAN treaty, are better off in legal terms than foreign workers employed here? And that's OK?

I wonder, then, if we shouldn't get in touch with the Korean and Japanese embassies as their nationals far outnumber us.

BTW. I'll delete any further anonymous comments, although I'll accept pen names.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 12:15 pm" | #
............................

Whilst I agree that you have been treated shabbily by all and sundry in this my point really was that your overall stance and position when viewed from an Indonesian perspective could be accompanied by a murmur of the ironical 'kasian' for perhaps in judging your case the powers that be could have been swayed by the following:

A Here's this well educated foreigner on wages of 10 times or more than those of a local of similar ability and background demanding extra because he feels that he has been treated unfairly. He wants to be compensated with additional highly paid income for which he will not be working. Well being rich can be irksome.

We weren't actually paid for our last labours, as they stated in writing that they would.

B As a wealthy non-Indonesian he can afford at least to seek compensation for his perceived wrongs. Poor people cannot. Additionally the evidence he presents is highly critical of his Indonesian employers in inflammatory language too. His point might be a good one but there is no reason to be insulting and rude.

Wealthy? Not all expats live in enclaves and send their children to International Schools paid for by their employers. Have a browse through 'my' book and consider how remote I am (not) from Indonesian (read Jakartan) life and culture.

Nope, I can't afford to lose, and my ex-colleague in similar distress and similarly unpaid, spent c.Rp.70 million in bribes in order to process a new KITAS because, as I said, Penabur refused unless he/we dropped our legal case. This intimidation is, of course, subject to Indonesia's Criminal Code.

C The judge's cousin's mother-in-law's brother did some business with the aggrieved party (thats the school not Jakartass) and he said expat employees are always moaning about something or other - you think with their money they'd have nothing to complain about but they do.

Actually, we dropped our first set of lawyers when we discovered that the husband of one of them was a land broker in cahoots with Penabur.

D If he doesn't like the way things are done in Indonesia he should go home.

I am home. I have an Indonesian family, and have lived in the same (rented) house for over 20 years.

E He seems to think that law and justice are the same thing - well they're not.

But shouldn't they be?

The above perceptions are of course only supposition but I think there might be a grain of truth in at least some of it.

My point I guess is overall why did you not just shrug and walk away? (or fire bomb the school!) as we all must do sometimes, I'm sure your employers only got nasty when you started 'kicking off'.

They got nasty before our treatment having intimidating native speaker teachers for the previous two and a bit years: in employing them on business and tourist visas, in forcing prospective employees to negotiate separately for salaries and in refusing to allow time to consider the job offers.

"If you don't want it, there are plenty of others who do, and for less money."

I know that the above is provocative and most of it is 'just suppose' but this case could be another 'Jarndyce vs Jarndyce' (who? what?) and do you really want your life to be dominated by this thing.

Sure it dominates. Funding a family whilst in a state of uncertainty isn't easy and it has affected my health - my hair wasn't white before. However, as Penabur didn't provide any insurance for their expat employees for the first two years, not even through Jamsostek, the state insurance company, as they were legally bound to do, the stress might well have got to me eventually.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're right but you're wrong.

Nope, I'm right and Penabur is wrong, terribly wrong.

Anon (but presumably Antisthenes - see below)
| "May 15, 2008, 12:25 pm" | #
..........................

My stance is really quite simple. In this so-called age of reformasi, as Indonesians begin to come to terms, after 40 years of cowed obeyance, with the notion of communal respect and individual responsibility, it is the rule of law, particularly internationally respected conventions to which Indonesia have become signatories, which should be paramount.

My arguments are certainly with my/our erstwhile employers, but I have, as yet, not written anything which can be construed as inflammatory. Anything submitted by our legal team, and everything I write, has documentation to back up our case - including my comments above about visas and intimidation. Oh, and a death threat.

That I have not been sued for defamation is possibly an indication or admission by the employers that they understand this and have, therefore, knowingly flouted both the civil and criminal codes.

As for demanding 'extra', we are claiming nothing more than our legal entitlements according to Act No.13, 2003, concerning Manpower. (I can give full verse and chapter, i.e. Articles, and probably will - later.)

BTW. I am home! And the head of my legal team is a neighbour.

I may have done better by going to the Human Rights Commission or to LBH (the Legal Aid Institute), but having the respect of the community I've lived in for 20+ years has to count for something.

As for the rights of all to be treated equally before the law. This is not just a personal matter, stressful though it is.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 1:21 pm" | #
.....................................

As I said before I feel that you're right, but wrong to pursue matters; injustice is all around us but living in a state of indignation, albeit righteous is surely not a healthy way of carrying on.

I agree that the insouciance of the general population here to serious breaches of human rights is a concern and that beating the drum for contractually sodomised expat teachers is a worthy cause to follow.

However is life long enough?

As for your comments regarding your horror for the flouting of the law and that something must be done and justice will out, I'm sure that yours is just one of many arbitrary, unfair and wrong decisions made by a legal system that, as I'm sure your neighbour will agree, is seriously flawed and essentially runs on graft and favour.

Read your previous posts regarding Tommy S and Munir and many more. I can only say once again with your long experience of the way things are that you optimistically expected that this time it would be different.

As for the threat to foreign investment that this ruling seems to pose, I can only say that many of the foreign companies presently extracting enormous wealth from this poor country may well applaud heartily labor laws that allow them to brook no opposition, and it must be faced that your test case might well help them along.

Also should we not allow the Indonesians to fight their own battles against injustice?

Till the revolution my friend and this time not anon.

Antisthenes | "May 15, 2008, 2:10 pm" | #
.....................................

For evil to exist, good men do nothing.

As you have noted, through Jakartass I have been championing the rights of underdogs. Now I've become one, are you suggesting that I should roll over and have my tummy tickled?

No fucking chance, mate!

I'm not going to google the source of the quote above, but to suggest that I should do nothing is somewhat naive, isn't it? Surely it's the personal which provides the focus and the essential fires in the belly for the fight ahead.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 2:30 pm" | #

A Blow Against Labour

2008-05-13T05:00:00.002+07:00

The following was published on 8 May 2008 by HukumOnline, the major library concerned with Indonesian legal matters, and is reproduced with their kind permission.

It relates to my legal case against BPK Penabur claiming unfair and arbitrary dismissal, a claim that we lost in the Industrial Relations Court, albeit having gone through the necessary initial process of negotiation under the auspices of the Ministry of Manpower.

The decision is of major concern to every employer or employee in Indonesia, and especially expatriates. I have not editorialised the article in any way, but in the weeks (months? years?) to come I will be adding a commentary to this blog whilst seeking to publicise those details of malfeance, intimidation and possible corruption of which we have documentary proof, not least because we are worried about the implications for all former colleagues, both expatriate and Indonesian.

Industrial Relations Court Decision - A Win for Employers

The Industrial Relations Court (Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial / PHI) located in the Central Jakarta District Court has handed down an interesting decision that has implications for the employment of expatriates across the board. This particular dispute arose between a number of teachers who believe that they have been unfairly, arbitrarily, and unilaterally dismissed contrary to the provisions enshrined in the Labor Law (Law No. 13 of 2003) to protect them.

In a blow to labor of all forms in Indonesia the PHI has sided with the employers in this case. Why is it a blow? The decision expands the previous interpretations of the provisions of the Labor Law in a manner which clearly favors employers over their employees. This brings into question whether employees have any real employment security once an employer decides to terminate their services for any reason, real or imagined, in a unilateral manner.

The Labor Law is presumably to enhance and protect the interests of both parties in this situation and to ensure this occurs a limited interpretation of the provisions must be applied. Limited in this sense refers to interpretations that comply not only with the spirit of the provisions but with the wording of those provisions as well.

An interesting aside to this case is that there was a previous mediated decision formulated by the Labor and Transmigration Office of West Jakarta that indicates that the Respondents in this case were in breach of the provisions of the law. This mediated decision made an award to the Plaintiffs. However, there was a stipulation that if either party disagreed with the award then they could proceed with an action in the PHI. In this case the Respondents chose this option. It is worth noting that the PHI did not give any consideration to the mediated settlement decision of the Labor and Transmigration office despite the document being entered into evidence.

Of most interest to employers in this decision is that Specified Term Employment Contracts (Perjanjian Kerja Waktu Tertentu / PKWT) cannot morph into Unspecified Term Employment Contract (Perjanjian Kerja Waktu Tidak Tertentu / PKWTT) even where the employer fails to renew the expired PKWT. The reasoning offered by the PHI was that the Labor Law requires expatriates to be on PKWT.

The literal reasoning and application of the provision above flies in the face of the creative interpretation offered by the PHI with regard to the language of PKWTs. The Labor Law at Article 57(1) seems to explicitly suggest that a PKWT must be in Indonesian. One of the claims of the Plaintiffs was that the only contracts they had were in English. However, the PHI held that the contracts in English fulfilled the necessary requirements under the law.

For employees it is important that they understand that once they have been terminated that the “clock is ticking”. This means that the prevailing laws and regulations only allow for a certain amount of time to elapse before any claim must be lodged. It is important to note that the PHI made specific reference to matters that were submitted outside of the stipulated time frame.

However, in a win for employees, the PHI held that if an individual was engaged into employment after the mandatory retirement age then an employer could not rely then on Article 167 to terminate the employee because they had entered mandatory retirement age.

The decision was determined on 8 April 2008 and read out in open court on 17 April 2008.

The Plaintiffs have already commenced the process of appeal.

Teachers call for a change in curriculum

2008-03-26T17:00:00.001+07:00

Schools should return to an earlier style of liberal education with more time for play and less rigid methods of teaching children to read, according to the largest teachers' union.

Citing mounting evidence of a crisis in children's happiness and mental health, the National Union of Teachers will today debate calls to scrap the most restrictive elements of the national curriculum and reverse a government order that literacy be taught through phonics.

"Teachers want a return to a system which is liberal and flexible and not top-down [and] imposed by government. We want a return to a time when there was a potential for magic moments in the classroom," said the general secretary of the NUT.

Which teachers? And where?

The full article is here, and largely refers to the not very popular methodology in English pre-schools of teaching reading through phonics rather than word recognition, but the central message has relevance here in Indonesia.

There is too much rigid testing in schools, generally multi-choice, with too little assessment. This reduces creativity and renders students torpid and unimaginative - robotic if you will. This is the pre-season of national exams which all students in grades 6, 9 and 12 have to pass in order to move on up to the next level. There are sets of exams called 'try outs' which are set by the education departments of local authorities.

I've seen the Grade 9 English paper set by the Jakarta Education board: it's a shame that it wasn't proofread by a qualified language expert (such as myself - but I'm not volunteering) before issuance.

Most graduates from senior high schools (SMA) here want to go on to tertiary education. It is unfortunate that the previous twelve years have been spent filling in dots on computer mark sheets rather than being assessed by those competent to look beyond the boundaries of A,B,C and D.

I say this because the common complaint in universities here is that plagiarism is rife. Students are ill-equipped to experiment and enquire. They remain empty vessels awaiting to be filled with so-called facts. So the mob rules and academic successes are generally in the sciences, which are 'disciplines'.

It is often stated that Indonesia is a country in waiting, one full of potential. But does it have "a potential for magic moments in the classroom."?

Is there justice in Indonesia?

2008-02-28T18:00:00.004+07:00

This is an idle question, at least for the next four weeks in my case. Those interested in my ongoing legal process will no doubt be pleased to know that on March 27th the presiding judges at the Industrial Relations Court will issue their verdict. There will be a further week for both sides to lodge arguments about the fine details. We fully expect that we'll be seeking higher compensation based on documents, or the lack of them, which have yet to be presented to the over-worked Lordships.

For example, our employment contracts and letters of dismissal were in English, whereas they should have been in Indonesian in the first instance. Although this was a fundament of our case, we still had to provide certified translations. That several clauses run counter to Act No.13, 2003 concerning Manpower ~ for example, the notion of a probationary period in a supposedly fixed-term contract ~ I suppose means that the added expense we've incurred thereby further help prove our case.

Of course, the major question is how come BPK-Penabur were unable to provide the original documents filed with, presumably, the Departments of Manpower, Education, and Immigration, and the police, in order to process the multitude of permits and visas which enable an expatriate to legally work and reside here.

We can usefully ask why, on a number of occasions, several of us had to leave the office when officialdom was due to visit. We had presumed that our papers were in order. This does naturally lead to thought of criminal investigation, but we'll leave all that to Depnaker to sort that out once our case is settled. That'll be when Media Sekolah, a new-ish weekly tabloid with the lofty aspiration of 'Building Indonesia Through Education' (Membangun Bangsa Melalui Pendidikan) will be publishing a major expose of the network of (supposedly) Christian schools who flagrantly disregard not only the laws governing employment but also the ethics of their religion. They also produce documentaries about corruption for such crime watch TV programmes as SERGAP (on RCTI).

Was it Woody Allen who commented that "Those who can do, those who can't teach, and those who can't teach think they can manage schools." That certainly seems to hold true for too many establishments here in Jakarta. There are other former employees of Penabur who have initiated legal proceedings, the Singapore International Schools franchise network is reportedly embarrassed by the number of judgments awarded against it, and other profit-centred schools are beginning to fear the wrath of fee-paying parents.

This is a shame given the other more important issues facing the education sector, many of which are being raised in Thoughts Outside The Indonesian Box.

Worthy Of Respect?

2008-02-07T12:30:00.001+07:00

Foreigners wishing to make a life in Jakarta have a clear choice - live in enclaves with security to keep the riff-raff out or live at street level and interact with the local community.

I have now lived in the same house for twenty years; it was my choice and 'Er Indoors moved in a year or so later. We fit in: the postman, electricity meter reader and even the newspaper 'boy' are long-term regulars. There is a monthly gathering, arisan, which the housewives attend to swap gossip and to contribute Rp.100,000 to a collective kitty which is scooped by one mum on a rotational basis, or according to urgent need.

I very rarely hear the cry "Hello, Mister", nor is the word 'bule' (whitey) often uttered in my presence. The many young children in my neighbourhood ~ a very mixed community in terms of wealth, ethnicity, religion and lifestyle, whatever that is ~ generally greet me with "Good morning/afternoon, Om (uncle)".

So it has come about that the lawyers in my legal case against my erstwhile employers, Badan Pendidikan Kristen Penabur/Ukrida Penabur Internasional, have been appointed because a senior member of the firm lives opposite. It is happenstance that one of the named partners on the letter heading was once an Attorney General in the New Order era, and the other was on the staff of Try Sutrisno when he was Army Chief shortly before becoming Suharto's penultimate Vice President.

Obviously I have not sought out high profile lawyers. I cannot afford to pay their fees upfront, not least because BPK Penabur have yet to pay me for work that I did before I was summarily dismissed. Having legal representation has come about because of the respect I have earned over the years within this community.

Intimidatory letters and phone calls have been Penabur's modus operandi not only during the course of our - yes, I have an ex-colleague in similar distress - legal process. We also have affidavits and documents which suggest that intimidation has been endemic for a number of years, both before and continuing after our own case. There are well-founded allegations of visa irregularities putting the status of expatriates at grave risk of deportation, of tax avoidance, and even an attempted eviction and a death threat. This is all generally non-Christian behaviour unbefitting an organisation which claims to be at the forefront of Indonesia's education system.

There are further allegations of continued non-compliance with manpower regulations. Many, if not all, of our former colleagues (still) do not have legally enforceable employment contracts, and there are, to our knowledge, at least two other cases involving Penabur being dealt with by the Industrial Relations Court, one of which has been brought by Indonesian staff.

This will also be a concern to Curtin University of Perth, Australia, who are co-sponsors of the UPI-Penabur Business School. Their original commitment was with UPI, initially the Penabur high school native speaker English language programme, and they were involved in the original recruitment of native-speaker teaching staff, first in Perth and later here in Jakarta, as well as the supply of courses for extra-curricular classes.

There are no suggestions that their employment practices in Australia are anything but legal and above board, but we are sure that they would not wish to lose their good name by being associated with unethical and illegal practices elsewhere.

Penabur's lawyers suggested at one meeting, a meeting where they were castigated for not providing documents, that I was in breach of 'etiquette' by publishing general comments about the ethics of the Penabur board on the internet.*

They will be interested to know that this post is being published with the knowledge and permission of our legal team.

Full disclosure of evidence will be made here on the Performing Monkeys blog as soon as it has been stated in court. I will also give details of possible criminal charges that we anticipate will be made against senior officers of the Penabur Board, rather than the minions their lawyers have named and who have been deemed disposable.

The actions of these officers demonstrate that they are worthy of no-one's respect, let alone that of their employees.
..........................................
* Read the January 2007 archive, posted in order, for a series of background posts on Penabur's "Christian" philosophy.

Jesus Saves

2007-12-01T16:00:00.000+07:00

... in an offshore account?

A seminar is being held in Jakarta today, Saturday, at a venue known as Serenity Towers. Its aim is to coerce local Christians into paying loads of money to learn how to earn loads of money because it is their God-given right to do so during their infinitesimally short time here on Earth before, like the diamonds they flash, they return to the earth.

Whereas many Muslims treat the Koran, their Holy Book, as the, ahem, gospel truth, many Christians, generally Protestants, rather than taking to heart the purported words of Jesus - "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - ask themselves "Why not gain the whole world plus my soul?".

Naturally these perverts of the truth, sorry - THE TRUTH, find justifications for their greed.

"Ask of me and I will give you the heathen for thy inheritance and the outermost part of the earth for thine possession."
Psalms 2.8

That, presumably, is the justification for having crucifixes made in the sweatshops of a factory in Dongguan City in heathen China.

The mostly young, female employees work from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. seven days a week and are paid 26 cents an hour with no sick days or vacation. Workers live in filthy dormitories and are fed a watery 'slop'.

On reading stories like these, one may be tempted to dismiss religions as being contemptuous of humanity. It is encouraging, however, to discover that an awareness of ethical investment does exist among some Christians.

Being a good steward of one's financial resources also means making money in an ethical way that is compatible with Christian values.

Also, the Bible points out that part of the blessing of having money is to use it to help others and further the Kingdom of God: "If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother"
(Deut 15:7, King James Version).

Jakartass was raised in a predominantly Christian environment because that was the England of the post-war years. I have since learned that wars are fought and terrorist outrages are perpetrated in the name of false prophets by folk who think that life here on Earth is so shite that their only purpose is to destroy it.

Then there are those who wish to wrest the riches of the Earth for their own ends from the heathens who occupy the surface above. Those who argue against these despoilers or suggest alternative points of view are labelled as blasphemers or infidels.

Building edifices for the supposed glorification of one's gods is a timeworn practice. Grand mosques, temples and cathedrals are dotted around the globe, with a few mountain sized Buddhas to watch over them. Here in Jakarta, as my good friend Indcoup has reminded us, the Bethany Church is the force behind Christ's (and the world's) tallest erection, the planned Jakarta Tower. Amongst the treats in store for the hoped for 40,000 visitors a day will be a mega mall, something that is sorely needed here. (Sick joke sic transit.)

There are various cults who believe that with the Second Coming of Christ, True Believers will be carted off to heaven. I'm not sure how many virgins and/or gigolos will be available, but that sure as hell sounds attractive to some. What I'd like to know, however, is what Jesus would buy, apart from a new pair of sandals.

This is a valid question because this is a feeble attempt at giving a plug to a new documentary available on DVD called What Would Jesus Buy?. Made by the Reverend Billy, this follows a church choir called "The Church of Stop Shopping," which crosses the USA singing anti-shopping and anti-corporate songs. I presume that the Rev is also a major supporter of such initiatives as the Buy Nothing Day which took place last Saturday, the 24th.

Unfortunately, I had no advance notice of it, even though there is an Indonesian website and it was celebrated here in Jakarta with a free market in Sambas Park, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and provided free food, clothes, free T-shirt printing, book readings, acupressure, a free acting class and an introduction to Braille from the Mitra Netra Foundation for the blind.

Ika Vantiani, 31, from a community called the Dipepi Free Food Gang, said that Buy Nothing Day was intended to counter consumerism and to promote the concept that sharing was better than buying.

The event, however, took a not unsurprising turn for Jakarta, with more people turning up looking to get freebies than to give. Ika had initially announced the free market on a number of mailing lists in her network. However, radio stations and newspapers interviewed her before the event and hence the rapacious throngs.

At least 100 people visited the park, with many of them not quite grasping the concept behind the free market. Strangers to the idea of sharing and 'Buy Nothing Day', many of the visitors appeared hell bent on grabbing everything in sight.
(fr. Jakarta Post)

"Rapacious throngs .... hell bent on grabbing everything in sight"? Shopping and sweatshops as the new religion?

It's 'Christians' like these who are the patrons and managers of various educational establishments here which, they claim in their missionary zeal, will produce the country's élite. In spite of their earnest speeches, in practice teachers remain exploited and underpaid, and Indonesia continues to slip down the international ranking lists related to the quality of education. (cf. UNESCO - Education For All Global Monitoring 2008, released yesterday, shows Indonesia has slipped to position 62 - out of 130 surveyed - from 58 last year.)

But sharing, caring, with no financial reward? Offering free classes for the poor, campaigning against sweatshops and trafficking, concerned about the excesses of a consumerist society and hopeful that there still can be an Earth fit for future generations? What kind of people are these?

Simple, they are unsung heroes who believe in the inate power and goodness of the rakyat (common people). They also recognise that there's a thin line between good and evil. What do you see?

What I see is that folk who profess to take the words of the Bible (and the Koran) as the literal truth are following their own thought processes without due regard for the actual words and intended meanings of the Prophets.

Modern Christianity is a religion of great variety, from so-called liberal to arch-conservative, yet all forms of Christianity contain traditions that not only are not found in the teachings of Jesus but rather, are opposite to him and in the way of Human Rights.

In other words, these self-proclaimed élitists really can't give a shit for society as a whole and are best left locked up in their exclusive 'serene' complexes with the entrance gates locked.

A sign of the times?

At least that keeps them away from decent folk.

It doesn't cost much .... 1

2007-01-02T01:00:00.000+07:00

This is not the first in a series of articles outlining and delineating how certain employers here show little regard for the welfare of their employees and their clients. I have already written at length about Bakrie and Lapindo, about Adam Suherman and his plaything, AdamAir, and there is a lot more that can and will be written about their arrogance. However, this the first in a series with the same theme but with a personal angle which will slowly unfold as my legal case reaches up through the echelons.

In one week I will be an illegal alien for the first time in my 19 years here. At that time I will have named the names of those who seek to stigmatise me thus. However, I have not broken any laws here. They have. What is more they continue to do so with those remaining in their employ. I have the full backing of my legal team as we seek a solution.

An educationalist recently told me that the philosophical priority and ethical basis of his chain of schools is to teach students what is right and wrong. I suggested that good and bad are more fundamental concepts. For example, the execution of Saddam Hussein may have been right in judicial terms but the executioners horrified the world because of their display of hatred and bigotry. Because they were bad, this made the act itself inherently wrong.

Our upbringing should guide us to what is right and wrong. Problems occur when an individual or group imposes its ethical and moral correctness on others who differ in their interpretation.

When I commented that, per se and de facto, good is right and bad is wrong and that these concepts were indivisible, I was told that my thinking is very post-modernist.

Before I get accused of using lexiphanic language, let me just say that I'm not at all certain what a post-modernist is. According to my Webster's Big and Too Heavy To Put In Your Pocket Dictionary which I trust as far as I can throw it, post-modernism means coming after and usually in reaction to modernism in the 20th century, usually in the arts and literature.

Hang on a sec here. 'Modernism' also has a definition, but I think we can all understand that in general it refers to a break with the past, to new methods and tools.

I suppose I am a modernist in at least a couple of respects. Jakartass, my main blog, is one of the world's top blogs - ranked ±100,000 out of ±96 million active blogs, and both my sons are computer literate because I gave them one when each was 6 years old. However in most others I think I am a pre-modernist.

When I was a lad in London, back in the mists of time admittedly, so was David McKie.

Wartime austerity bred a nation of hoarders for whom spending money on new things was plain wrong.

As Britain recovered from the deprivations and sacrifices of World War II, food and clothing remained rationed. No-one got more than their fair share. School children such as David and myself were given daily doses of vitamins, and we were encouraged to make do, to waste not, want not, to Do It Yourself and, perhaps above all, to not throw things away because they might have a later use.

If a tap (faucet) leaked, we changed the washer.
In Jakarta, we buy a new tap.

If we had a garden, we grew our own fruit and vegetables.
In Jakarta we buy imported tropical fruit such as mangoes and durians.

We learned to switch off lights to conserve electricity.
In Jakarta air conditioners are set at 16ºC.

We knew where our water came from - it was recycled 16 times before reaching the sea.
Here taps are left running as if they were mountain springs.

We took our own shopping bags to the shops.
Here, plastic bags are used once, thrown away and thereby worsen floods.

When asked about our future dreams, we would answer that we wanted to be train drivers, nurses or accountants.
Here high school students say they want to be business managers and get rich.

We were encouraged to give back to society something of what society had given us. We helped little old ladies across the street, we served the community of which we were part, we did what we were lead to believe was right and proper, and folk thought we were good children.

A recent survey asked high school students what their lifetime ambitions were. A substantial percent said they wanted to be financially rich.

Here, children are taught that right and wrong is about being good or bad consumers, possibly with the help of God.

This polemic is not specifically geared towards Indonesian societal expectations: for all I know 'globalisation' has homogenised urban societies everywhere. I have not forgotten about the horrendous underemployment and poverty to be found in urban and rural kampungs, but then this polemic is focussed on those who think it is their god-given right to exploit others for their own immediate gratification.

I do know that I don't fit into such a society. I am not a snacker, content with a nibble here, a soundbyte there. My attention span is quite long. I can gaze at a sunset for its duration. I can listen to a piece of music which is longer than three minutes. I can read a novel at one sitting (but rarely have the time these days because I have a writing commission). I don't need constant entertainment, unless my writing can be categorised as such. I am happy with my own company although this doesn't mean that I cannot entertain or play games.

The incessant and intrusive pop hit ringtones of handphones are an invasion of my personal space, and, as I have often said, I don't even have one. I don't want the immediacy of contact and access to my privacy. And I certainly don't want to receive and pay for illiterate messages I can't decipher or unimportant news as it happens.

I don't need or want anything that it is instantly consumed without regard for the process of production and digestion and disposed of without due thought for the consequences. And above all, I don't seek any of those things thinking that I do it because God is on my side. That is Prosperity Theology.

Prosperity theology detracts Christians (and every self-confessed adherent to any religion with the exception of animists) from worshipping God and leads them to worship material wealth. Idolatry is not just bowing down in front of a statue, it is "making the penultimate, ultimate." Thus, the Christian's objective ceases to be worshipping God and serving Him, but health and wealth in this life.

Therefore, prosperity theology actually makes God into a means towards an end. God becomes the means whereby I enjoy a rich and prosperous life on this earth. In its worse format, prosperity theology seeks to manipulate God ...... "in the name of Jesus" (is) a quasi-magical formula used to coerce God into giving me what I want.

Followers of this religious path do everything for show, to make themselves look good when they look in the mirror.

And I fully intend to crack that mirror, to show these idolaters what's on the other side of the Looking Glass.

It doesn't cost much .... 2

2007-01-02T00:02:00.000+07:00

It would be very easy to conclude that this region is one big unmitigated disaster area. According to the WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia), Indonesia experienced 135 ecological disasters last year due to forest and environmental degradation.

The executive director of WALHI, Chalid Muhammad,said, "The disasters started with floods and landslides in Jember, East Java, on January 1, 2006, and closed with floods and landslides in northern Aceh which forced some 70,000 to evacuate to safer areas at the end of last year."

The ecological disasters caused big material losses, and claimed thousands of lives, he said.
The floods and landslides that hit Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan islands at the end of the year killed about 300 people. And, of course, they have continued into this year.

He also said that over the last five year, the impacts of environmental damages have increased three times. And the main cause of these preventable disasters?

"Forest exploitations, both legally with the government's permits and illegally."

Pure greed in other words and a total lack of consideration for the consequences of these actions. Whilst the very few enrich themselves and embed themselves in political and business empires, the masses are impoverished. Those forced "to evacuate to safer areas" have to find alternative sources of income to support their families.

Many end up in Jakarta and many more become migrant workers overseas in wealthier countries where, unfortunately, they are often further exploited.

According to Indonesia's Manpower Ministry, around 1.7 million Indonesians work in Malaysia, but 1.2 million of them work illegally. Most of these will have been smuggled in, albeit having 'paid' for their passage by getting into long-term debt as an indentured labourer. Their unjust and unfair employment contracts force them to work long hours at near-poverty level wages in slave-like working conditions.

At the 12th Summit of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) held in Cebu, the Philippines, in January 2007 agreed to right these wrongs.

The Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), a network of 260 migrant workers’ association, trade unions and migrants’ rights advocates in the region, had long urged the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to protect the rights of millions of migrant workers in the region.

They issued a press release(.pdf) :

“Southeast Asia has a large population of labor migrants, many of whose rights are violated on the basis of their race, ethnicity, gender or creed. We call on ASEAN to enshrine in its Charter international core labor standards including freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively and elimination of all forms of discrimination at the workplace.”

Today (Saturday, January 12th 2007), the 10 ASEAN member countries are due to sign a declaration on migrant worker rights which spells out the rights and duties of the receiving and origin countries of the workers. There is one potential stumbling block concerning the rights of migrant workers to have their families with them.

However, this should be resolved as there are 'higher' international conventions and agreements (UN and ILO) which the countries are, by and large, signatories of. It is to be hoped that Indonesia, in particular, will enforce this agreement. Although Indonesia has pledged to ratify the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, it has yet to sign it.*

Given the importance to the Indonesian economy of the inflow of money to migrant worker families, money which one may presume lessens the unemployment rate (40%) and the number of those deemed to be living in poverty, that was an important day. That is if the government enforces the law.

“Labor migration provides significant economic contributions to both sending and receiving countries. Remittances from labor migrants across the region amount to billions of dollars. If use properly, remittances can be an additional means for just and people-centered development, provided that appropriate institutional support and economic opportunity exists.”

Of course, having agreed to protect the rights of migrant workers overseas the Indonesian government must be seen to be enforcing the domestic law on the employment of all workers, including we 'migrants' from the so-called developed countries.

*Other Conventions which Indonesia has yet to ratify include the optional protocol to Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), optional protocol to CAT, optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on the involvement of children in armed conflict, optional protocol to CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

It doesn't cost much .... 3

2007-01-01T10:00:00.000+07:00

General interest in education in Indonesia has grown substantially in the past five years and many Indonesian schools are claiming to be a national-plus school. What this means to the population in general and many parents is ambiguous but it is clear that the term national-plus, as a marketing tool, is a very effective way of attracting increased enrollments to a school. There is more to being a national-plus school, however, than simple and often misleading gimmickry.
The Chairperson of the Association of National Plus Schools - 2006

The first so-called National Plus schools were set up over 10 years ago and there are now about 50 in Jakarta, a proliferation coinciding with the growth of the middle classes who could afford an alternative to the state schools which has long suffered under investment as central government prioritised its need to overcome the debt crisis.

Another factor for low investment in this sector has been decentralisation and that not all regencies and provinces have the political will or competence to manage this sector.

However, the government does have a commitment to improving education and making it more widely available. This is in line with its Education For All programme initiated in 1999. Its commitment has been demonstrated with its Social Safety Net providing scholarships to primary and secondary school and university students from the poorest families throughout Indonesia, providing block grants to schools in poor areas for running the schools during this economic crisis and providing budget to support the implementation of equivalency programs for school-age children (primary and lower secondary schools) who financially are not able to attend the regular school programs, as well as providing more scholarships for secondary school students’ drop-outs to attend skill training courses.

Changes have been made, too, with the curriculum now moving towards 'student-centred' education. This is in line with the curricula from, say, Singapore, adopted by many national plus schools. It is hoped that Indonesian students will graduate with a more worldly knowledge, a sense of curiosity/experimentation and the skills to compete "in this globalisation era", whatever that may be. Above all, it must be hoped that through this 'new' approach citizens will gradually widen their horizons away from the imposed insularity of the Suharto era.

National Plus schools are more expensive than state schools for a variety of reasons. Certain schools will market themselves on the basis of the facilities that they have to offer. From quality gymnasiums and outdoor facilities to suites of computers, and languages laboratories some schools may be able to offer built facilities of excellence; but facilities alone do not necessarily make a school.

An essential ingredient for any school is its teaching staff and here again many national plus schools show an admirable degree of commitment. The training of teachers and requiring teachers to be updating and developing their teaching material is a quite common experience. Also, a commitment to curriculum development and the utilization of new methods and media for teaching reflect national plus schools' commitment to improving their educational service.
Rachel Davies, an educational consultant - May 2004

The better National Plus schools offer the International Baccalaureat or the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education); those that have been accredited by the relevant boards are not the subject of this particular polemic.

Not all schools, however, have been established with the primary aim of ensuring educational excellence. For many, it is but one way of creating a profitable business. Hence the number of franchise businesses, e.g. HighScope, Singapore International Schools and the many kindergartens such as Tiny Tots.

(NB. Language schools have also followed the franchise route as pioneered by EF. ILP and TBI are two examples of long established organisations which have remodeled their core business post-krismon in order to compete with the rapid proliferation of self-styled language institutes.)

One cannot argue against the notion of a school more than covering its costs. Without the excess of income over expenditure, there would be little further investment in what has to be a dynamic enterprise. Schooling, both in theory and practice is in a state of constant flux and that is for the good.

Where major problems lie is when the self-appointed management of a school (or network of schools) preaches a philosophy to its clients, the parents, yet does not understand the principles underlying that concept or the need to employ those who do.

As a part of the planning for improving the quality of education, Indonesia recognizes that unless the schools are being managed efficient and effectively, we cannot expect that the program will achieve its goals and targets. For this, improving the quality of the school personnel to be capable of managing the school properly is of crucial importance. This is indeed very urgent considering the trend that decentralizing education up to the district level is very soon going to need the support of this policy by the readiness of each school to manage the school program efficiently and effectively.

I take 'decentralizing' to also mean the abrogation of responsibilities to management boards. Although district and regional offices of the Ministry of Education oversee those aspects of the curriculum and management of schools, such as the recognition of teacher competence, pertaining to subjects which are compulsory in Indonesian schools principals may find that they are chiefly answerable to a school board or 'head office' which is staffed by non-educationalists.

However dedicated principals and their staff may be, their greatest stress comes from being answerable to external pressures. The private sector has now become deeply involved in education and schools; so much so now that it seems that education is seen as a good business prospect and a growing business sector.

Not all schools, however, have been established with the primary aim of ensuring educational excellence. For many, it is but one way of creating a profitable business. Hence the number of franchise businesses, e.g. HighScope, Singapore International School and the many kindergartens such as Tiny Tots.

(NB. Language schools have also followed the franchise route as pioneered by EF. ILP and TBI are two examples of long established organisations which have remodeled their core business post-krismon in order to compete.)

One cannot argue against the notion of a school more than covering its costs. Without the excess of income over expenditure, there would be little further investment in what has to be a dynamic enterprise. Schooling, both in theory and practice is in a state of constant flux and that is for the good.

Where major problems lie is when a school (or network of schools) preaches a philosophy to its clients, the parents, yet does not understand the principles underlying that concept or the need to employ those who do.

It doesn't cost much .... 4

2007-01-01T09:10:00.000+07:00

Education For All in Indonesia wouldn't cost much if there were the infrastructure to provide employment, but I do not intend to pursue that path in this thread. Nor is it my intention to laud the achievements of the Suharto era but one must note the great amount of resources - from the Government, private sources as well as from international donors - which, since 1990, have been devoted to invest in the development of the four program areas - early childhood development (ECD), primary education, literacy programs, and continuing education - through a coordinating scheme among the concerned agencies.

The school system includes a six-year primary school, a three-year junior secondary school, a three-year senior secondary school, and higher education in universities, teacher training colleges, and (vocational) academies.

Under the constitution, education must be nondiscriminatory, and six years of primary education are free and compulsory. Subsidies are being made available to offer free junior high school schooling. In practice, however, the supply of schools and teachers is inadequate to meet the needs of the fast-growing post primary school age group.

This situation is partly responsible for the growth in the private schools sector and national plus movement, as these schools are able to employ expatriate teachers to offset the teacher supply.

The national education budget was US$ 4.18 billion last year with 31.8 million children enrolled in primary schools and 18.6 million in secondary, mainly junior high - years 7, 8 and 9. Senior high school graduation is a requirement for those wishing to enter university.

It is probably important to note that in Indonesia the public school sector maintains dual vocational (SMK) and professional streaming (SMU). However, while the number of places in tertiary institutions remains inadequate and education is relatively expensive, only a small proportion of SMU students actually participate. This poses some major questions as to the relevence of a purely academic SMU curriculum and the efficiency of a dual system.

Schooling is not, of course, the same as education; it is the study environment. However, every country requires some commonality in its school system in order to promulgate its culture identity, be it founded on a secular or religious basis.

The current Law No. 20/2003 Concerning the National Education System offers the following:
- Education is defined as a planned effort to establish a study environment and education process so that the student may actively develop his/her own potential to gain the religious and spiritual level, self-consciousness, personality, intelligent, behaviour and creativity to him/herself, other citizens and for the nation.

The right to receive an education is a human right as defined in the United Nations Charter. Katarina Tomaševski, a Special Rapporteur on the right to education submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Commission in 2002 following a visit here at the invitation of the government.

She had this to say: An in-depth review of the nature and scope of Indonesia’s human rights obligations in education is necessary in view of the dual system of public and private, religious and secular education, the dichotomy of school fees being both outlawed and allowed, the vertical and horizontal division of responsibilities for financing education, and the dual scheme of civil service and "contract teachers". Moreover, the dichotomy of education as a free public service and as a traded service has exacerbated the confusion regarding Government’s human rights obligations in education.

I referred to the 'horizontal division' of financial responsibilities in my comment in It doesn't cost much .... 3 about the decentralisation of responsibilities to local administration. My central thesis, however, has now been reached - the dichotomy of education as a free public service and as a traded service.

The Chinese Education Foundation was founded on July 19, 1950. Its name was changed in 1967 as after more than 25 years of Independence, Indonesian's pride has grown more, such that nation building and character building needed to take a more concrete form. Also, from the content of the founding act, it was very noticeable that the old foundation's Chinese ethnic based on Christianity has changed into Indonesian Nationality based on equal beliefs or religion.

So Yayasan Badan Pendidikan Kristen (BPK) Djawa Barat (Foundation of Christian Board of Education of West Java) was formed with the head office in Jakarta. However, soon another name change was required and registered in 1989.

In the improved social-economic condition and communicational ability, BPK Jabar has made several expansions up to the Lampung area. So a couple of schools under BPK Jabar was built in Bandar Lampung and Metro. With Jakarta no longer a part of West Java and Lampung as a province clearly outside Java, separated by the Sunda Canal, so it has been considered to change the name of Education Foundation in West Java with another - the name of Christian Education Foundation Penabur (BPK Penabur).

And this is the English translation they provide of their prologue: Remembering that Indonesian Christian Church which lives in alliance with the Holy Church in undertaking the call of servitude and testimony is in educational region, so that the Indonesian Christian Church in West Java has founded and nurtured a Christian Education Foundation based on the Christian Faith, in accordance to the awareness that education has the purpose of forming a complete humane. It was also stated that such foundation was situated in Jakarta and based on Pancasila and has the purpose of participating in forming a complete Indonesian humane through the region of education as the realization of the call of servitude and Christian testimony.

I have done my best to cross check this with the version in Indonesian and, yes, 'servitude' is what is meant, even though my too-big-to-tote Websters defines the word thus: the condition of a slave, serf, or the like; subjection to a master, bondage or slavery. The antonym is 'freedom'.

So, where does this fit in with the stated aims of the Indonesian education system, to enable students to actively develop his/her own potential? Where does 'creativity' fit in?

Penabur is perceived to be failing its students, mainly because it fails to meet the needs of the "essential ingredient for any school", its teaching staff.

"Jesus died for somebody's sins ... but not mine."

2007-01-01T07:00:00.000+07:00

I know that this one line from a great song will be offensive to the people pictured here, but then their sins aren't mine. I do not keep people in servitude, I do not lie, I do not knowingly break the just laws of a society and I do not practice Prosperity Theology.

They do. These are the faces of people with such vast egos that they deem it more important to preserve their 'face', a notion based on how high they rank in their mafia-style family oligarchy. I am not a member of this family, thank god - whoever she may be.

For the whys and the wherefores, read It doesn't cost much .... 5.
Next.

It doesn't cost much .... 5

2007-01-01T05:23:00.001+07:00

As it is cheaper to buy a new DVD machine than to have it repaired, it is, I suppose, little wonder that there is little pride of possession. Quantity replaces quality.

Unfortunately, this rapacious and unthinking perspective is also all-pervasive in the pompously titled human resource development departments. We are but cogs in a machine, inter-changeable and fully disposable. You don't have to accept this job; we can always get someone cheaper.

Clock in, clock out. Do your job and don't complain. You are in our employ purely at our pleasure, for our profits.

How we live by time
- Dave Allen

A watch, a clock.
We're brought up to respect the clock, to admire the clock.

Punctuality.
We live our life to the clock.
You wake to the clock.
You go to work to the clock.
You clock in to the clock.
You clock out to the clock.
You come home to the clock.
You eat to the clock.
You drink to the clock.
You go to bed to the clock.
You go back to work to the clock.

You do that for forty years of your life.
You retire.
And what do they fucking give you?

A clock!

Success is the aim of every company in the world. To make a company success, every employee in the company must have the same aim with the company.

Of course, when you don't know the aims of the company, it can be very difficult for employees to stick with the game plan. Penabur has never issued its expatriate employees a 'Vision and Mission Statement'.

Every employee must do the job with the best potential as they can.
Agreed, but the five teacher co-ordinators (in three years!) have been unable to offer support to NETs as they were either too busy fighting the NETs' corner or defending their own.

To make our company a great place to work, our approach is to make trust between managers and employees, this is the primary defining characteristic of the very best workplaces.
Trust? Oral agreements which are reneged because there none in writing. Employment contracts which, apart from the original ones written in August 2004 (partly by me), cannot have been agreed, as required by law, with the Manpower Ministry as the contracts themselves do not encompass terms and conditions as specified by law.

Trust? When every working expatriate in Indonesia is aware of the consequences - potential deportation and blacklisting - of being caught with inadequate paperwork. Yet there are few expatriates within the Penabur organisation who have not found themselves in this predicament for variable lengths of time.

Every employee must do the job with the best potential as they can.
Agreed, but what is the job? No job descriptions have been issued since August 2004. There is no support system for the expatriate teachers. The teacher co-ordinators have been unable to offer support to NETs as they had absolutely no support from management themselves.

We are a team, we work as a team and we share the fruit of success together.
In our commitment to communities, we don't just seek near-term results - we also want lasting impact.
Within Penabur's UPI programme there is no fixed salary scale for the teachers as, according to Pak Robert Robianto, the Chairman of BPK Penabur, Jakarta, there are budgetary constraints and the programme is borderline financially. Teachers are expected to negotiate their own terms, a demeaning process for those professionals who believe that education is a service to be provided rather than a product to be sold.

The lasting impact is that in the first two years, more than half of the expatriate staff recruited left, mostly pushed rather than jumped, full of resentment at the disrespectful and inhumane* treatment.

I am one of those, but I am not alone. In my (our) efforts to negotiate and to reach an amicable settlement, the blame for the non-payment of agreed (in writing) monies due, for the uncertainty of expatriate employment and worker status, for the perceived non-payment of income tax and for the many other irregularities, both contractural and structural, the blame game has almost reached the bottom rung of the administrative staff.

I always got on with the security guards and office boy. Perhaps they'll give me satisfaction. After all, they're not the ones facing trials in open court.

By the way, the fine words in italics are those of Pak Oki Widjaya - CEO Galva Corporation (on the left of the seated front row) and (formerly?) chair of the UPI Board. He is one of those primarily responsible for the predicament that BPK - Penabur now finds itself in. Note that he says one thing about the company that gives his family financial security and another in the 'servitude' of BPK Penabur which screws its employees.

Oh, and Penabur teachers have to clock in and out of their schools.

* I was tempted to write 'inhuman' as the local, Indonesian, teachers have been called 'monkeys' - a particularly rude epithet - by the then Head of Programs. One day he told me that the project had been set up to meet the demands of parents who wanted their children to see a white face in the classroom. A performing monkey, no less.

A partial document (.pdf) detailing how Penabur has infringed Act No.13, 2003 pertaining to Manpower can be found here.