J

akarta has spent more than Rp 11 trillion (US$847 million) on education in the last two years. New schools have been built, and existing ones renovated. Teachers'€™ salaries and allowances have increased and students have received substantial funds for their study.

However, the city has paid little attention to training its teachers, the main determinant of quality graduates.

Slamet Maryanto, a 51-year-old math teacher at a senior high school in Jakarta, said recently that he had only been requested to attend three training sessions in the last two years.

'€œAll the training sessions have been related to the implementation of the 2013 curriculum,'€ he said.

Slamet, who has been teaching for over 20 years, said that the last training session he participated in, a six-day event regarding models of learning, descended into chaos.

Slamet said that around 200 teachers, of different subjects and various school levels, were divided into five rooms.

 '€œThe committee did not provide us with enough mentors. There were two sessions with only one mentor. We barely learned anything new,'€ he said.

He added that it was not necessary for him to disseminate the information from the sessions to other teachers, as most of them were already familiar with the material.

'€œThe training was just lecturing. There was barely anything we weren'€™t aware of regarding practicing new methods'€ he said.

Slamet said that he hoped the training session could be more intensive and held in smaller groups, so teachers had a chance to actually practice the new methods.

'€œI think it is important to have continuous training as well,'€ he said.

According to data from the Culture and Education Ministry, the average national exam score for junior high school students in Jakarta is 74, while in Yogyakarta it is only 66.2.

 Scores in both provinces are above the national average of 61.8, however Jakarta spent Rp 6.48 million per student last year, over 13 times more than Yogyakarta with Rp 484,000 per student.

The data also shows that for teacher competence, Yogyakarta achieved a score of 67.02, while Jakarta scored a 62.58.

Civic education teacher Heru Purnowo, who has only attended one training session in the last two years. '€œIt was only the one for [familiarization with] the 2013 curriculum,'€ he said, adding that many questions about the implementation of the curriculum had been left unanswered.

Heru said that the curriculum required teachers to use the scientific method for every subject. '€œI teach civic education. It is hard to use such a method,'€ he said, adding that he had not received further instruction on how civics can be taught with a scientific method.

Heru said that aside from attending the infrequent training sessions held by the Education Agency, many teachers, especially civil servants, were not sufficiently motivated to attend training sessions conducted by private institutions.

'€œThey think that as it is not obligatory, they don'€™t have to attend,'€ he said.

On the contrary, SD Benhil 12 elementary school teacher Hidayat, said that teacher training was adequate. '€œWhen a teacher participates in training, he or she will disperse what they have learned to other teachers. So, many people can make use of the knowledge,'€ he said.

Jakarta Education Agency budgetary and planning development head Gunas Mahdianto acknowledged that his agency did not prioritize human resource development in its budget.

'€œWe are focusing on infrastructure,'€ he said.

He added that from the Rp 11.1 trillion education agency budget in 2015, only around Rp 40 billion was allocated for teacher training.

Education activist Retno Listyarti said that the city administration'€™s education policy did not encourage teachers to improve their skills. '€œThere are no programs such as scholarships or writing contests for teachers,'€ she said, adding that such programs could increase teacher competency.

She further said that the policy did not respond to real problems faced in schools, such as violence.

Retno said that teachers, who directly handle the cases, were often confused about how to react. '€œThe agency should have held school crisis management training,'€ she said.