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As a developing country, Indonesia continuously keeps trying to improve its education

quality in order to create well educated citizens to face the competitive era. The
Indonesian government through Ministry of National Education(MNE) has given much
attention to education quality through various educational reforms because it is generally
believed that education quality of a country determines the future prospect of the country.
However, to see whether or not a country has given much consideration to teachers'
quality can be seen from they way teachers are recruited, evaluated and developed
because It is widely believed that the quality of education in school is directly related to the
recruitment, evaluation and professional development of teachers which determine
teachers' quality(Thair & Treagust, 2003; Bjork, 2005). To ensure good quality teaching is
present in every school classroom in Indonesia, teachers need to be well recruited,
evaluated and professionally developed if Indonesia is to provide quality education to its
citizens. This essay discusses three issues which are vital to teachers quality in Indonesia
namely teachers' recruitment, evaluation and teachers' professional development in two
ways to evaluate whether or not Indonesian government has given enough attention to
teachers' quality. Firstly, this essay describes the process of teachers' recruitment, teacher
evaluation, and teachers professional development (i.e. teacher certification program and
training) in public school in Indonesia. Secondly, it describes how those reforms affect
teachers in practise, meaning that what really happens in the school in my educational
context where I currently work by looking at whether or not those reforms impact practises
of those who hold leadership positions such as curriculum leader and teachers in
performing their duties. In other words, this essay tries to see discrepancies between

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policy issued by central authority and its implementation as well as effects on teachers in
schools.
One of the main concerns which is always present in the debate of providing quality
education is the process of teachers' recruitment. The reason behind this concern lies on
a common belief that better teacher provides better teaching. Current report from the
World Bank(2010) pointed out that only 37 % teachers in Indonesia hold a bachelor
degree and the remaining teachers still hold lower qualifications, particularly dominated by
primary school teachers. Since gaining independence 1945, there was an attempt to
improve Indonesian education quality. In its early years of Independence, due to lacks of
resources, Indonesia recruited massive numbers of teachers in early 1960s-1980s without
any strict procedures to meet the shortage of teachers(Raihani & Sumintono, 2010).
President Soeharto in 1970 even issued a Presidential instruction to recruit any secondary
and junior school graduates to become teachers for primary schools. The new teachers
were only given few months training before teachings in schools (Raihani & Sumintono,
2010). After the reform in 1998, there was a need to change the ways teachers are
recruited. Afterward, teachers are recruited, tested, by the central government through the
Ministry of National Education (MNE) using a national civil servant recruitment test
(CPNS). Anybody can apply for a teacher position as long as they have a bachelor degree
as required for the teacher position. The CPNS test is conducted annually to recruit
hundred of thousands of teachers in the country. To know how many teachers are needed
across Indonesia, the central government asks local districts to propose numbers of
teachers in accordance with the schools' needs in the regions. In the CPNS test, there are

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four areas which are tested namely Indonesian civic education, Indonesian language,
basic Mathematics, and basic English language. Applicants who pass the CPNS test will
be deployed to schools by local district government to teach. The CPNS recruitment test
has been considered as a major cause of Indonesian teacher' lack of competence since
the test does not measure both teachers' subject content knowledge and pedagogical
knowledge(Zulfikar, 2009; Raihani & Sumintono, 2010). Both further ague that The CPNS
test is very unlikely to get competent teachers in their field and is very unlikely to perform
quality teaching performance because there is no clear set of criteria in recruiting teachers.
The test only covers general knowledge of applicants. Such a recruitment test is a major
reason for Indonesian teachers' lack of competence as shown in World Bank report(2010)
when they were tested on mastery of their subject content knowledge with the result of
below 50% both for primary and secondary teachers.
Such a discrepancy was felt by myself when comparing my experience of being
recruited as a teacher in a Catholic school and a public school some years ago. In my first
school recruitment experience in a Catholic school, I was tested in my subject and then
was interviewed two times by the headmaster and head of the foundation. I was also
asked to prepare a lesson for a 45 minute micro-teaching with real students in the
classroom. In the Catholic school, I felt there was an emphasis over quality teachers in the
recruitment process. In contrast, in the CPNS test, there is no subject content test nor
pedagogical test. The Ministry of Education assumes that if teacher candidates have got
their bachelor degree, they are already qualified enough to be teachers. The poor system
of teachers recruitment could also be seen in Indonesian Government derivative regulation

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on teacher no. 74 year 2008 ( Peraturan Pemerintah nomor 74 tentang guru ) which
mentions that teachers need to have a bachelor degree and are recruited based on the
CPNS system and is regarded the same as other civil servants. Raihani & Sumintono
(2010) have noticed that CPNS recruitment test for teachers has emphasised too much on
quantity of teachers rather than quality of teachers in Indonesia. They argue that this
tendency might be caused by the need to recruit many teachers to serve across the
country in order not to experience shortage of teachers. Both Raihani & Sumintono (2010)
and Zulfikar (2009) argue that if Indonesia want to improve its teachers quality, one of the
foremost concerns to be reformed is the teachers recruitment system. They stress the
need for a recruitment system which is similar to good private school recruitment system
to boost teachers' quality. Looking at current system of recruiting teachers, it is clear that
one of the main problems for Indonesian teachers' lack of competence is caused by the
recruitment system.
Another indicator to see whether or not quality teaching has been given much attention
in Indonesian education system is to see how teachers' performance is evaluated in the
public school system. Since teachers in Indonesia is considered as the same as other civil
servants, teachers' performance evaluation is also based on the civil servant system
evaluation called DP3 which is issued yearly by school principal where teachers work. DP3
evaluation system focuses on teachers' loyalty as government workers which is caused by
centralised system in the government of Indonesia. Teachers are assessed by principal
annually on the areas of loyalty, work performance, responsibility, obedience, honesty,
cooperation, and initiative with the scale of 1 to 100. The passing grade for all areas are 75

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except for loyalty which has to be 90 or over if teachers want to continue working as
teachers(Bjork, 2005). This evaluation system has made teachers neglected their
instruction quality because they are assessed on loyalty and obedience rather than quality
of teaching. There is no such details on how performance is assessed in the DP3 system.
Bjork(2005) found out that in school meetings in Indonesia, teachers were warned to
comply with the civil servant rules and there was no room for teaching performance to be
discussed. Bjork (2005) also found that the only basis for teachers evaluation in public
school in Indonesia is teachers' ability in meeting the curriculum schedules, managerial
issues and commitment to attending the flag ceremony. This system of teacher evaluation
has discouraged teachers from improving their knowledge and pedagogical skills since the
evaluation is not related to their teaching performance. If Indonesia wants to improve
education quality, it is important to create a more performance based model of evaluation
for teachers. Bjork (2005) has noted that poor Indonesian teachers evaluation has been
caused by the institutional culture in which teachers subscribe, which is civil servant rules.
For Indonesian teachers, the code of conducts for civil servants is far more important that
their classroom instruction. In one of Bjork's narratives, it was an uneasy experience for
him to teachers in the faculty room neglected unsupervised class when the students asked
the teachers in the office to teach, and the students were told to study alone (Belajar
sendiri) by the teachers(Bjork, 2005, p.85).
In order to improve teachers' quality, teachers professional development also needs to
be given much attention. The government of Indonesia issued a new teacher law in 2005
(Teacher law no. 14 2005) which require all teachers to have a bachelor degree by 2015

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and need to be certified if they want to stay in the profession. All teachers who have not
met the requirement are required to attend Open University to meet the law. If they do not
have a bachelor degree by 2015, teachers could face a risk of losing their profession. With
the current law, new teachers will need to take a year of professional training at
government teachers education college after completing a bachelor degree in order to be
able to become teachers in public school. In regard to teachers' certification, there are two
ways to certification, namely getting a masters degree or attending a three week training
and then pass the competency test. Teachers who get certified will get another income
rise and can stay in the profession(Triyanto, 2012). Another policy from the government to
improve teachers professional development is through teachers subject association
(MGMP) where teachers teaching same subject meet once a month to discuss their
teaching with fellow teachers (Thair & Treagust, 2003). However, other than these
mandatory programs, there is no clear teacher professional development programs yet in
the country though it is mentioned in government derivative regulation on teacher no 74
2008 that teachers always need to improve their quality as professional. In my personal
experience, teachers do have some training within their first three years of teaching, but
those short training are given randomly by local education office. With more decentralised
system of education, policy on teachers professional development is solely on the hand of
local educational office program.
After giving some information on how teachers are recruited, evaluated and developed
in Indonesia in the context of public school, it is crucial to see how those reforms affect
teachers and those in leadership position in practise such as the implementation of

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curriculum. In describing how those reform have impacts on real practise of teachers,
assistant principal and principal in Indonesia, I will primarily base my analysis on Bjork's
(2005) one year observation of six schools in East Java and my own experience in a public
school for four years. Wiles (2009) points out that the main task of curriculum leader and
teachers among many is to run 'curriculum cycle' effectively. This cycle involves planning,
implementation and evaluation of instruction. Teachers are the main element which
determines the success of curriculum implementation since they are the ones teaching the
curriculum content.
In terms of teachers' instructional practise, although there is an emphasis on a more
students centred learning on the School Unit Curriculum, Indonesian teachers instruction
is still dominated teachers centred instruction where teachers serve as the main source for
learning. Bjork (2005) found that students' learning solely depend on teachers and
teachers still teach in the traditional ways. Emphasis on more students centred learning
the 2004 curriculum does not affect teachers in practise. One of the main reasons for
teachers negligence for chance is due to the nature of teachers' evaluation in Indonesia
(Zulfikar, 2009; Bjork, 2005). Teachers do not think there is a need to change practise
since their performance is measured based on loyalty. This means that teachers'
evaluation system has a negative impact on teachers' performance since teachers think
there is no need to improve their competency due to unrelated evaluation. Based on my
experience, I feel less motivated to improve my instruction because principal evaluation on
my performance is based on my attendance or loyalty to the principal. A common problem
as observed by Bjork and Zulfikar (2005; 2009) is that Indonesian teachers instruction is

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dominated by rote memorisation learning. In Zulfikar's (2009) opinion, this problem is

caused by the lack of teachers' competence that teachers are not confident to create
innovative and creative teaching. This lack of competence is caused by poor system of
teachers recruitment that teachers are not ready to engage students in critical thinking so
teachers drill students to learn by rote memorisation. Teachers use rote memorisation to
disguise their incompetence of subject mastery to force students to learn. This practise is
worsened by the nature of students' evaluation in Indonesia in which a national and
regional examination is implemented to evaluate learning in Indonesian school. poor
teachers' recruitment and evaluation have negatively impacted teachers teaching.
Looking at the impacts of teacher professional development on teachers practise,
Triyanto (2013) and Raihani & Sumintono (2010) found out that

that there was no

difference in practise on teachers who have been certified and those who have not been
certified. The main reason for teachers to pursue postgraduate degree was just to get a
salary increase. In the process of certification, both scholars have noticed that there was a
tendency to comply with the formality rather than real training for teachers. Both believe
that one year educational program is much more beneficial and enriching for teachers
rather than just a three week training. However, this idea is hindered by the heavy
workload of Indonesian teachers so it is very unlikely they have a chance to attend a long
term training. In my view, the certification program is just a way of increasing teachers'
salary in order to rise teachers' profession in the society because to rise all teachers'
salary at the same time is less likely due to huge numbers of teachers in Indonesia which
is around 3.5 millions teachers (World Bank, 2010). So, the government tries to improve

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teachers welfare gradually by having certification program in place. Teachers' collegiality

which tries to be developed through MGMP also does not seem to be working because
Indonesia is geographically diverse that transportation becomes a problem for teachers to
get together. Bjork (2005) found that private school teachers were reluctant to join MGMP
because they thought MGMP was a waste of time and they did not get any benefits from
the gathering.
In terms of students' learning progress monitoring, teachers are given unlimited
freedom in evaluating their students. Students' progress lies on the hand of classroom
teachers who are in charged of handing a particular class. The classroom teachers need
to ask fellow teachers if they find any indication of failure in students academic progress.
The classroom teachers ask fellow teachers what the students can do to improve the
academic results. This problem needs to be overcome before teachers meeting at the end
of academic years to determine level advancement. If the problem is not solved by
teachers related to the issues, the students might face a risk of not going up to the next
level. In regard to principal and curriculum leader practise, it is clearly seen that they play a
very little role in teachers' practise. For example, in evaluating students' learning,
curriculum leader has no role in helping teachers to improve how they evaluate students.
Teachers just need to report to curriculum leader how many students might face failure of
advancing to next level, but he has no clue of why students face such consequence. The
main explanation lies on the hand of teachers. In practise, curriculum leaders' role is still
dominated by managerial chores such as scheduling, meeting and program planning. He
rarely touches upon students' instruction or evaluation. Curriculum leadership has little

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impact on teachers' instructional practise in Indonesia and leadership in curriculum still

touches on maintenance aspects of curriculum such collecting syllabus and lesson plan in
the beginning of every academic year. Those who hold leadership position cannot do
much about curriculum or other matters because the nature of Indonesian teachers'
workload is too much. An assistant principal in my school still needs to teach same
teaching hours in a week. So, his time to supervise other teachers is limited.
In conclusion, in order to see whether or not Indonesian government has given an
emphasis to improve its teachers' quality and education quality in general can be seen
from recruitment system, evaluation system and teachers professional development. In
reality, system of recruitment, evaluation and professional development in Indonesia has
caused poor practise for teachers since there is no a relation between their performance
and their evaluation system. Educational reforms such as curriculum change and teachers
certification program has not meant much for teachers in practise due to the system.
Indonesian system of recruitment and evaluation of teachers is a major cause for
Indonesian low quality of education. As Stated by Bjork (2005), Indonesian system of
recruitment and evaluation has made teachers neglect their many duty of instruction
because the system emphasised on teachers loyalty rather than teaching performance.
Teachers are not recruited based on the pedagogical competence nor subject knowledge
competence, but are recruited on general knowledge. This has caused poor practise of
Indonesian teachers which rely heavily on teachers centred learning and rote
memorisation. Indonesia has set up a certification program for teachers professional
development. However, the certification program has no real impacts on teachers

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performance. The only reason of why teachers want to to be certified is to get an increase
in their salary. Those who exercise leadership such as curriculum leaders have little
influence in improving teachers' practise in curriculum implementation because they still
focus on managerial aspects of curriculum leadership such as scheduling and program
planning. Curriculum leaders and principal have little influence in teachers practise in
Indonesia because they are occupied with many different tasks and lots of teaching hours.

Reference list :
Bjork, C, (2005) Indonesian education: teachers, schools, and central bureaucracy, Routledge, New York
Raihani & Sumintono, B, (2010), 'Teachers Education in Indonesia : development and
challenges', in Karras, KG & Wolhuter (ed), International Handbook of Teacher

Education Worldwide in : Issues and challenges , vol. I & II, Atrapos, Athens, pp. 181195
Thair, M & Treagust, D.F, (2003), ' A brief history of a science teacher professional development initiative
in Indonesia and the implication for centralised teacher development', International Journal of

Educational Development, vol. 23, pp. 201-2013

Triyanto, (2012), 'Improving teacher professionalism through certification program: an
Indonesia case study', World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

Journal, vol. 67, pp. 864-868

Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia No. 14 Tahun 2005

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Peraturan Pemerintah no. 74 tahun 2008 tentang guru

Wiles, J., (2009), Leading curriculum development, Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press,
World Bank Report (2010), Human Development East Asia and Pacic Region: Transforming
Indonesias Teaching Force, World Bank Jakarta, Jakarta.
Zulfikar, T, (2009), 'The making of Indonesian education: an overview on empowering Indonesian
teachers', Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 2, pp. 13-39