TEACHER CERTIFICATION – Between Working on Wetlands and Working on Professionalism

Once upon a time at a Subject Teachers Consultative Meeting (MGMP) held at the district level, several teachers of subject X were present who, on average, had not been 'certified' while the speakers at the meeting were senior teachers and supervisors, almost all of whom held the title of 'certified teacher'. '. In short, after one of the presenters presented the MGMP material using Power Point (PPt), a participant approached the speaker during the break session. This participant had a conversation with the presenter about how to make an interesting PPt to be displayed during a presentation. He showed an example of a PPt design that he had to the presenter and suddenly the presenter said, “Wow, how can you make all those writings move (animate) on the slides? Can you teach me how to make it?” With a smile, this participant gave practical steps on how to design an attractive PPt.

This story reminds me of how the quality and capability of a certified teacher is compared to that of a non-certified teacher. This is the other side of certified teachers who do not have indicators as qualified to certified teachers. The funny thing is, he – the presenter – even said that he was not yet good at operating a laptop though. This picture is at least enough to give a worrisome impression of a certified teacher.The question then is what exactly is certification and can such a capability be categorized as something “worthy of certification”? The point is that all professionalism that deserves to be certified or given a certificate or certificate of proficiency in a particular field are those who have met the competency qualification standards. Ironically, there are still many certified teachers who have not met the competency standards that have been determined.

In the regulation of the Minister of National Education regarding Qualification Standards and Academic Competence of a teacher, it is stated that a professional teacher must have competencies that include 4 things, namely Pedagogical Competency, Personal Competency, Professional Competency, and Social Competency. (Social Competencies). These four indicators must be owned by a teacher first and then can be given a certificate or certificate of proficiency in their field (certified). In other words, if one of the indicators is not or cannot be met, then a teacher is not eligible to be certified.

Furthermore, in the Law on Teachers and Lecturers Number 14 of 2005, its contents are intended to improve the quality of education in Indonesia. Meanwhile, in the same law regarding teacher certification, which is one of the Indonesian government's programs to reform the Indonesian education system, the government hopes that teachers in Indonesia can improve the four competencies mentioned above. However, it should be underlined that the certification program in Indonesia is substantially a government program that aims to increase teacher wages or salaries as an incentive. When viewed from an etymological point of view, the word 'Certification' is actually not ideal if it is associated with the meaning given by the government in the program, namely "a government program that aims to increase teacher wages or salaries as an incentive". The word 'certification' comes from the root word 'certificate' which means 'certificate' – a letter that provides an explanation of an achievement and eligibility which is then marked by the awarding of a card or certificate. Ironically, these card or certificate holders (certified teachers) do not or have not been able to demonstrate significant proficiency in their respective fields of knowledge. From the government's perspective, in addition to socializing and supervising the implementation of this certification program, it is also necessary to review the diction (word choice) used by the government to refer to the meaning of the phrase "a government program that aims to increase teacher wages or salaries as an incentive (incentive). The author's suggestion is to use the phrase 'professional allowance' or the word 'incentive'. From the teacher's point of view, it is necessary to understand that if the teacher's ability is still the same as the ability before being certified, then the teacher is actually not eligible to be certified, however, the teacher only deserves to be given a kind of professional allowance in the form of incentives with the intention that with these incentives the teacher can further improve and while at the same time demonstrating the quality of competence. If teachers only understand the certification program only at the limit of remuneration and do not understand what the government intends to provide remuneration, it is not surprising that 1) teacher performance only leads to the 'Teachers based Qualified Program'. In other words, the quality is the certification program, not the teacher, 2) the concept of teacher hunting is more likely to lead to the cultivation of wetlands rather than the cultivation of professionalism, meaning that teachers will work harder to complete and complete the administration of the certification program to get the remuneration rather than seeking professional management. , 3) Since the issuance of a government regulation regarding the teacher certification program, it is clear that the registration of new students who have the desire to enter the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP) has exploded. This phenomenon is certainly motivated by a misunderstanding of the certification program in which they think that teachers will be more prosperous with the certification program.

Another obvious problem with regard to certified teachers is the number of acknowledgments expressed by the average certified teacher that they are very difficult in proposing their rank and class, especially the promotion of class from IVa to IVb where they have to submit Scientific Writing (KTI) with research designs. Class Action (CAR) as one of the conditions that must be met for promotion. If it is related to their 'certified' status, then the KTI should no longer be an obstacle for them. The question is, why does this requirement actually become an obstacle for teachers who will propose a class increase that has been certified on average? The answer is because teachers do not or have not understood the concepts, methodologies, and methods of CAR itself. Let alone understanding the concepts, methodologies, and methods, they just don't know the CAR format so they don't know how to start.

By looking at the existing reality about the performance of teachers, an alternative non-directional hypothesis can be formulated: "The higher the remuneration offered by the certification program, the lower the quality and ability of certified teachers". At least, this is in line with the results of research conducted by Arung, Fernandes & Pratiwi, Helmy (2014) on the Effect of Certified and Non-certified English Teachers' Self-Efficacy on Teaching. They found that 1) there was no difference in self-efficacy between the two groups of teachers. In other words, these two groups of teachers (certified & non-certified) are at the same level of self-efficacy. 2) there is no effect of self-efficacy owned by the two groups of teachers on the teaching they do. Surprisingly, the results of the correlation test show that when viewed in terms of whether or not there is a relationship between the self-efficacy of the two groups of teachers towards their teaching, the non-certified teacher group has a better correlation between their self-efficacy and their teaching ability than the non-certified teacher group. with a group of certified teachers. This allows the researcher to conclude that this condition is caused by the high self-confidence and work motivation of non-certified teachers causing their teaching to be quite successful even though their motive for doing the work is based on the hope of passing certification.

Indonesian people, especially teachers, should understand that when the State has made a contribution that teachers can use to support their quality and abilities, then make the best use of it for the advancement of education in Indonesia without having to first think about the amount of rupiah wages from government programs. the. Teachers and lecturers must remember the following 2 phrases for 2 different contexts: “When you are still a student, the phrase that becomes your reflection is teaching and learning and when you have become a teacher and/or lecturer, the phrase that will become your reflection is teaching-learning". The implication is that when you are still a student, what you always do is learn and teach, you learn because it is your responsibility as a student for your graduation requirements and at the same time you teach what you get while studying to others. Slightly different from your status as a teacher and or lecturer, your main task is to teach because it is your responsibility as a teaching staff but you must not forget to continue to improve your quality and ability by learning continuously to support your four competencies so that in the future finally you deserve to be certified.

Society of Wetland Scientists - Professional Certification Program

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