International schools: Checking on the teachers

Iqbal Widastomo , Contributor , Surabaya | Sun, 05/11/2008 12:34 PM | Supplement

"What makes a school?" It is a simple enough question but there are many answers. There are, we have to face, many elements that come together to make a school. But, some of the most outstanding have to be the people involved.

The people involved, that is, on a day-to-day basis. The primary users of the school: the school children and their teachers. These have to be among the very most important elements of what makes a school.

Indonesia suffers from, as many other nations do, an apparent shortage of qualified and/or experienced teachers and yet we are seeing a growth in private international schools. We must wonder how these schools are managing to meet their teaching staff requirements.

In some respects we may think that the growth of private international schools is a potential benefit for the profile of teachers and the teaching profession generally in Indonesia. Teachers that get the opportunity to work in these schools are going to get international training and experience that will help them. But this is not always the case.

International schools will typically be following international curricula and these will usually be based in the English language and so the language of instruction will also be English. It is not hard to see, therefore, that a command of the English language is practically essential.

What is happening in some international courses of education leaves a lot of doubts and a lot of worries. Recently, a student who has to take private tuition to support her studies reported experiences at school that should worry us.

She is attending a school that is offering an international qualification but the teachers may not be ready to deliver such a program. Her private tuition includes the study of the English language to help her studies generally, but her teachers lack English competency.

The school is aiming for its students to gain competence in English and so be successful on a program of study that demands that they write and present in English, but their teachers lack such competence. This not only seems a contradiction but it also seems hard on the students.

The teachers may be competent in their subject areas but when it comes to reading and interpretation of a curriculum presented in the English language, they face problems and these problems are likely to be passed on to their students.

These teachers need training and that training may not just be in language skills. They may also need pedagogical training to allow them to adapt to international styles and methods of educating.

This kind of training does happen but sometimes it seems to be handled in an odd and maybe even very questionable way. A colleague attended training sessions with an expatriate "trainer" who was very determined at the beginning of the sessions to highlight his credentials.

The trainer made claims of being a "qualified" and "experienced teacher" but the sessions that followed were, in the words of my highly experienced colleague "nothing new in content or method and actually quite embarrassing".

It seems that the trainer lacked presentation skills and seemed to think that just because he was an expatriate he was superior to all those in his audience. Had he spent just a little time finding out about his audience instead of making claims about his own credentials and abilities his approach might have been different.

In fact, his approach might have been to learn more from his audience, which included holders of Master's degrees in education from overseas universities. It was later found out that this "trainer" was not a well liked teacher and was either fired or about to be fired from a previous school.

It seems then that some of the training programs that are being provided for Indonesian teachers who are going to participate in international courses are not of an appropriate standard. This has to be a concern to us.

There is no question or doubt that Indonesia has many highly capable and experienced educators who do have much to contribute to international schools but they do need support and that support should be appropriate.

With the growth in the number of international schools and also national and national plus schools that offer international qualifications, there are an increasing number of opportunities and possibilities of accessing international courses. However, we need to think carefully about quality.

There is a danger that in a rush to open up new opportunities and new schools the supply is getting ahead of quality. Fundamental to the quality that any school can provide is its teaching staff and their ability to communicate ... to truly teach is critical.

Even basic communication can be difficult though.

A student, met recently, studying at an international school in Jakarta complained about two key problems that he was having. One: that the teachers in the school were often changing, (that is, a high teacher turnover in the school) and two: that he often has problems understanding the foreign accents of teachers.

The teacher turnover matter is obviously a concern as changing teachers can lead to inconsistencies and be disruptive for students. But simple intelligibility on the part of the teacher is an incredibly basic problem.

The student could not be blamed because he has excellent listening and productive skills in English and so it is clear that the teacher was not communicating either well or clearly.

These instances jeopardize the chances for the students to succeed and equally jeopardize the good name of the schools and even the international qualifications that are being targeted.

As with most things in life, quality and preparedness count but perhaps even more so in the educational life of a child. International schools and international qualifications are desirable, but if they are not managed right and are not staffed correctly there will be problems.

The growth and even trend toward international schools can be highly valuable for Indonesia, but we need to check on this growth and make sure that standards are being targeted and quality is maintained.

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