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Forum to improve school management
Erwida Maulia , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 08/19/2008 10:43 AM | National
Southeast Asian school principals have agreed to enhance school leadership and management capacity and to develop the use of information and communication technology in education.
The first conference of the Southeast Asian School Principals Forum (SEA-SPF) held Aug. 15-16 in Indonesia also decided to hold exchange programs, seminars and conferences as their priority programs.
"We will focus on teaching and learning for the 21st century," the National Education Ministry's director of educational personnel Surya Dharma said Monday.
The two-day conference was organized by the SEA-SPF secretariat, which is under the auspices of Surya's directorate.
Surya said the forum had also reached agreement on key strategy, financing and partnership issues as well as times and places for the next two meetings.
Djoko Suprapto from SEA-SPF's secretariat said the forum had approved its drafted vision and mission and details of its organizational structure, membership, financing, and possible collaboration with relevant regional or international organizations.
He said country delegates and outside institutions welcomed the establishment of the forum, which Indonesia had proposed at the second roundtable meeting during the ASEAN Educational Leaders conference November 2007 in Bali.
"Many institutions have proposed programs and partnerships with SEA-SPF. With all this enthusiasm, I'm sure there will be no problem with funding. The ASEAN countries themselves, I believe, will allocate funds for these activities," said Djoko.
He said the forum took place at the right time amid concerns about uneven quality of education especially in ASEAN countries with economic and geographical issues including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam.
About 50 school principals and government officials from 10 ASEAN member countries attended the SEA-SPF conference. ASEAN member candidate Timor Leste did not attend the meeting.
SEA-SPF, the Australian Secondary Principal Association and INNOTECH, a regional innovation and technology center, signed a memorandum of understanding on organizing trainings and workshops for ASEAN's school principals in need.
The forum will hold its 2009 conference in Malaysia and its 2010 conference in Thailand.
Djoko said SAE-SPF planned to build partnerships with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Indonesia is currently the seat of SEA-SPF's permanent secretariat with principal Sugiarto from vocational school SMK 8 Jakarta holding the group's presidency.
a parent (not verified) — Sun, 08/31/2008 - 4:39pm
for me as a parent, i suggest parents must really search schools with competent teachers. I've learned from my relative that her kid is now studying in a MOntessori School. But unfortunately, the kid instead of learning and improving, becomes more hyperactive, hard to discipline and the good study habits is out of the picture. My cousin learned that the teacher is not that good in disciplining the children and the lessons being taught is not that accurate to what the child should know. The teacher seems giving more and more lessons even if the children are not yet that good with a specific lesson. The child seems left behind due to the fast change of lessons. The Teacher is not really concern if the child has learned fully the lesson before jumping to the next new lesson. Parents panic upon learning that their children are regressing and cannot understand well the lessons, so they are forced to ask the teacher-in-charge to give private lesson. And there is also cases happened with this teacher that she will not let the child graduate if not under her private lesson. Parents of this school especially my cousin are scared to question this teacher for she is good in defending her selfish intentions.This teacher is not real teacher for me. She is making a private business and not really concern with the children's real objective in going to school...to know the proper lesson with no private(money making) / extra lesson and must be with good disciplining. It seems that this teacher has NO HEART and her mission is to make people of Indonesia stupid. According to my cousin, this teacher is an old Philippna lady. And a stock holder in that school "MONTESSORI" somewhere in Kebon Jeruk.That's why the management of that school (Indonesians) tolerate her selfish acts for this person manipulates everything with that school. I hope you can help me do an action on this matter, if you can make a survey and make an article about Teachers' eligibility. I've heard also that you posted an article about this teacher when she was still in her previous branch. My cousin got curious about Montessori and really searched that school.