Recruitment, retention and engagement of teachers in Indonesia

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1.2.3 Recruitment, retention and engagement of teachers in Indonesia

Teacher recruitment is conducted in different ways based on whether the recruitment is done for part-time teachers, full-time private teachers, or civil servant teachers. For part-time teachers, recruitment is conducted by the school based on the subject the recruited teachers are going to be assigned. Although private schools sometimes recruit part-time teachers, the case happens more frequently with public schools. Teachers who are working part-time are sometimes doing something akin to an apprenticeship to prepare them for recruitment into being a civil servant teacher. This is because the amount of time working in a part-time position contributes credit toward the consideration for recruitment of civil servant teachers. Full-time private teachers are recruited either by private schools or the education foundation with which the schools are affiliated. Though in most cases teachers decide to become private teachers after they get no opportunity to become civil servant, there are cases when teachers decide to become full private teachers from the beginning of their teaching career. This usually happens with those who work in reputable private schools. Recruitment for civil servants, on the other hand, is conducted centrally by the government each year. Teacher graduates, either fresh graduates or those who have been teaching in the classroom, normally sit the recruitment test in the area 8 in which they reside. Recruitment is based on the positions available in relation to the various school subjects. Issues of attrition and turnover among teachers have received important responses nowadays due to the worldwide high incidence. In the USA, for example, Ingersoll has reported that up to fifty percent of teachers leave the teaching profession in the first ten years of their career Ingersoll, 2001. Li Feng 2005 further emphasizes that among those who stayed, only a quarter retired while half of them left for other careers Feng, 2005. Teacher turnover and attrition also happens in other western countries with an estimated 25- 40 of beginning teachers leaving their jobs Ewing Smith, 2003. Compared to the number from other countries like USA and other western countries, cases of teachers switching career, or teachers leaving their jobs in Indonesia are not very high. It is also a very rare case that teahers switch career from non-teaching to teaching because being a teacher in the Indonesian context starts very early on in one‘s educational history. Primary and secondary school teacher education programs require those who want to be teachers to make the decision to take up a teaching career as soon as they graduate from senior high school. When one wants to be a primary or secondary teacher, there is no other way than entering a teacher training college, or a university especially designed to prepare teachers. Because there is an age limit to register into these teacher colleges which are normally owned by the government, the decision to take on a teaching career should be made early. 9 In addition, teacher retention is not a relevant issue in Indonesia. As explained previously, there are few cases of teachers quitting teaching, except as a result of death or retirement. Once recruitment occurs, cases of quitting teaching due to poor evaluation results are very rare. Although the teaching profession might be as stressful as it is in other countries, it seems that not many people talk about teacher stress and the further effects of the stress on the job of teachers in Indonesia. In most cases, teachers will remain in teaching until retirement no matter how stressful their work becomes. Unlike teacher attrition and turnover which do not seem to be a significant issue in Indonesia, teachers‘ work engagement is an important aspect of teachers and is worth investigating. This is firstly due to the fact that quality teachers are viewed to be important assets in the context of education in Indonesia. Furthermore, although the teaching profession traditionally has a high social status in Indonesia, it provides neither high financial satisfaction nor high academic recognition. The term ―traditionally‖ here is meant to refer to the value in the society, especially the society with Javanese culture where teachers are considered to know everything and have social wisdom so that people come to seek for advice for their problems. Secondly, because most teachers stay in the profession the whole of their career life, it is worth questioning whether they are really engaged in the teaching profession. Additionally, the fact that many teachers have other jobs strengthens the importance of investigating their professional engagement. 10

1.2.4 Increase of perceived roles of teachers in Indonesia context