Teachers have to find the best solutions as in-person classes are impossible and online learning is also difficult to execute. The only option available is to visit the students at their homes.
By
SONYA HELLEN SINOMBOR/MEDIANA
·5 minutes read
DOKUMENTASI PRIBADI
Aswanto (42) an nonpermanent teacher at SD Negeri 13 Banawa Tengah, Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi, teaching his students from their home.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected education, especially in schools in rural areas far away from cities. Teachers have to find the best solutions as in-person classes are impossible and online learning is also difficult to execute. The only option available is to visit the students at their homes.
Learning at home is the best option these days in order to curb the COVID-19 spread. However, teachers in eastern Indonesia face a unique situation. They are nonpermanent teachers with inadequate, meager salaries.
Aswanto, 42, is one example. The nonpermanent teacher at SDN 13 elementary school in Central Banawa, Donggala regency, Central Sulawesi, has had to readjust his family finances during the pandemic. He receives his monthly payment of Rp 750,000 (US$50.90) every three months. Moreover, he has received that amount only in the past four years after participating in a program where teachers teach in remote regions. Previously, he had only received a monthly payment of Rp 150,000.
“How can we find money to pay for fuel, as my students’ homes are far away?” said Aswanto, who has been a nonpermanent teacher for 15 years.
How can we find money to pay for fuel, as my students’ homes are far away?
In a month, Aswanto spent Rp 250,000 to buy fuel for his motorbike. “Sometimes I just owe money to the fuel sellers. I pay them back when I receive my salary. I also have to think about how to buy milk for my youngest child,” he said on Thursday (13/8/2020).
Even before the pandemic, Aswanto and his wife Erlina, 38, also a nonpermanent teacher, had already led meager lives. Erlina only receives a monthly payment of Rp 150,000. The couple has four children.
Despite Aswanto not having realized his dream of becoming a civil servant, his teaching spirit has never faded away. “I have taken the civil servant exam four times since 2005 but I have never passed,” he said.
Sriyani Wongkar (27), an nonpermanent teacher at SD Inpres Boyongpante, Sinonsayang District, South Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi, teaches Class II students while learning from home.
If I only rely on my monthly payment, it will not be enough.
Sriyani Wongkar, a 27-year-old nonpermanent teacher in SD Inpres Boyongpante elementary school in Sinonsayang district, South Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi, is experiencing similar problems. She has been a nonpermanent teacher for four years, with a monthly payment of Rp 500,000 that she receives every four months.
The pandemic has posed a unique difficulty for Sriyani. Every day, she spends Rp 20,000 for transportation. This still excludes her lunch expense. Often, her payment cannot cover both her transportation and lunch expenses.
She also has to spend money to pay for supporting materials, including to photocopy lesson plans and journals. “If I only rely on my monthly payment, it will not be enough,” she said.
It is difficult to do online learning in Boyongpante. Apart from unstable cellular signal, most parents are smalltime fishers who cannot purchase cell phone internet credit all the time.
Teachers on Haruku Island in Central Maluku regency also experience difficulties. SMPN 6 Haruku Island state middle school principal Hasyim said in Rohomoni village that his school currently had 11 nonpermanent teachers with a monthly payment of between Rp 450,000 and Rp 500,000. The payment depends on the school operational assistance (BOS) fund that his school receives.
“Some of them have been nonpermanent teachers for 15 years. They have families. However, they remain high-spirited. Sometimes, it is us civil servant teachers who do not give our best in our work. However, with the meager BOS fund, there is nothing we can do. Where can we find additional money? Currently, both teachers and parents are facing a difficult time,” Hasyim said.
In response to the pandemic, Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim has issued a regulation that affirmation and performance BOS funds can be used for similar purposes as the regular BOS fund during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds can be used to pay nonpermanent teachers and other educational manpower as well as buy necessities for studying at home, online learning as well as health and hygiene goods.
Sakiyem (51), a teacher at SD Negeri 2 Guli teaching mathematics by visiting his student\'s house in Guli Village, Nogosari, Boyolali, Central Java, Thursday (30/7/2020).
Paid by the hour
Indonesian Teachers Association (IGI) chairman M. Ramli Rahim said that despite a government regulation having allowed the use of BOS funds to pay for nonpermanent teachers, their payment is still calculated by the number of hours they spend teaching. Moreover, schools need the BOS fund for other needs.
Ramli said that provinces and their regencies/cities often had different policies on the mechanism to pay for nonpermanent teachers. In Jakarta, for instance, all nonpermanent teachers are paid the provincial minimum wage. Meanwhile, in Makassar, South Sulawesi, nonpermanent teachers are paid Rp 1 million a month, from which a portion is taken to pay for social security.
“There is no clear legal umbrella, status or recruitment mechanism for nonpermanent teachers, but they are employed by the state. There are extraordinary problems regarding nonpermanent teachers’ welfare because the government has never been firm,” Ramli explained.
As a compromise to resolve this welfare issue, he proposed that the government create a regulation on who can teach at schools and calculate the state’s ability to pay for nonpermanent teachers and determine how many teachers are actually needed nationwide. The government must ensure that it can pay nonpermanent teachers in line with the fulfillment of their basic needs, such as regional minimum wage, as well as provide them with a professional allowance.
Another alternative is to cease appointing civil servant teachers or government-employee teachers but to maximize and tighten the appointment process of professional teachers.
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