goodmorningpapua.com – A Head of the Vocational School Development Division at the Papua Provincial Education Office, Yulianus Kuayo, said one of the teacher’s problems was the issue of teacher welfare and protection. Kuaiyo said that the welfare issue was directly related to the professional salaries of teachers.
“For teachers who are civil servants it is obligatory to get a salary. Meanwhile, PNS teachers who have not received a professional certificate are obliged to get one if they are already registered,” he said to goodmorningpapua.com when met in his office, Saturday (27/11/2022).
“Salary and teaching profession, if you get it, it’s a civil servant, it’s obligatory to get it, if the teaching profession has to fulfill the process, to get it,” he said.
Kuaiyo continued that according to regulations, the government has taken steps to improve welfare. But in the field sometimes the welfare is not proportional to the needs of teachers.
“But when he gets it, it’s like his salary won’t disappear, it sticks until he pensions, there are special and functional allowances that are given by the government. Then there are two of them so functionally they are intended for civil servant teachers, especially teachers at the Kita Foundation, then specifically for civil servant teachers in remote areas, not all of them get it. To obtain that, there are many regulatory rules that must be complied with, “he said.
Kuaiyo explained, the policy of the Governor of Papua Province, Lukas Enembe related to TPP for SMA/SMK teachers must be the attention of the Regents/Mayors throughout Papua.
“With the existence of the Special Autonomy law, if there is welfare, it will be better for civil servants, then for non-PNS, there will be another special policy, because non-PNS also educate Indonesian children and Papuan children,” he said.
Kuaiyo continued that, in addition to welfare issues, the protection of teachers in Papua is necessary considering that they teach in conflict-prone areas.
“On Teacher’s Day, the government must evaluate it so that it can become a priority for teachers,” he said.
Another serious problem is the distribution of teachers. The reason is that what is set seems arbitrary. Determined because of political interests, family relations and others.
“So the distribution of teachers in the city, then there are many teachers who have been transferred to structural, because the distribution is uneven, there are no teaching hours. Some moved because of politics, were appointed head of the sub-district head section and so on,” he said.
“In the Special Autonomy Law No. 2 of 2022 in article PP 106 gives space to the Provincial Government of Papua that SMA-SMK graduates can become kindergarten and PAUD teachers to fill the shortage of teachers, but if we read it actually doesn’t have an impact to catch up on the lagging quality of welfare competence it won’t answer, “he said.
Kuaiyo said, for now there needs to be a solution that must be taken. The government must be able to revitalize the physical buildings of all educational units starting from SD, SMP, SMA, SMK according to the number of students. So it must be developed which is a priority. So far, as long as we build a building, as long as it can be budgeted for. Even though the budget can be diverted to teacher costs.
“If it’s been revitalized, it’s a physical building. So at this time it is necessary to record the number of students. After that, we can know we will need so many teachers, then so many buildings. If then the mapping is clear, then later the government with the data will not budget the existing money. So the money that was previously there was to build a school or schools that want to be revitalized, for example, just one study room, a building that has to be built in one room, what else should we build if only one room has been built,” he said.
Kuaiyo said the government must focus on budgeting the budget to improve S1 qualifications. The government must fix the competition and then conduct a workshop. It must be budgeted for.
“It is also necessary that the distribution of teachers must be prioritized, then the distribution must begin and then be revitalized so that is the solution that must be made for the current teachers and schools,” he said.