The Jakarta Post, March 21, 2003
Teachers hired to teach kids in troubled regions
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, West Java
The government has begun a program to provide additional training to contract
teachers working in conflict zones.
The Ministry of National Education is providing the training for 280 teachers hired three
years ago on a contract basis to work in West and Central Kalimantan, Poso, Papua,
Maluku and Aceh.
The head of the Center for Upgrading Teaching Staff (P3G) at the Directorate General
for Basic and Middle Education, Abdorrakhman Gintings, said the contract teachers
would receive additional training in social psychology, dealing with emergency
situations, HIV/AIDS and children's rights.
"Besides giving them additional scientific knowledge, the teachers will also be given
the skills that will enable them to help their students solve the problems they face
because of the conflicts," he said here on Tuesday.
Gintings added that over the next several years, and in cooperation with the United
Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), additional contract teachers would be recruited to
work in conflict areas.
He said that this year, 40 new contract teachers would be sent to Aceh, West and
Central Kalimantan, Papua and Poso in Central Sulawesi, while 35 teachers would be
hired to work in Maluku and North Maluku.
"The teachers are expected to help their students deal with the trauma caused by
these conflicts, and to provide information to parents and authorities about the right of
children to receive a proper education and to be protected," he said.
But this program might draw some criticism because many of the students affected
by the conflicts in West and Central Kalimantan, Poso and Maluku have fled the
regions.
Thousands of students who fled the conflict in West and Central Kalimantan are living
in Madura, and many of those who fled Poso, Maluku and North Maluku are now
residing in North Sulawesi, Jakarta and Sorong.
The timing of the decision to send more contract teachers to these areas might also
be questioned, considering that the conflict in West and Central Kalimantan occurred
in 2000, and the conflicts in Poso, Maluku and North Maluku began in 1999.
Gintings said P3G also would deploy a number of people to the areas to train the
teachers how to deal with emergency situations in the workplace.
He said the program was being adapted from Unicef's training program for contract
teachers deployed to teach students in Palestine.
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