Badung – Teacher Professional Education (PPG) is a stronghold for producing professional and quality teachers in order to create superior human resources. Seeing its very important essence, Ganesha University of Education (Undiksha) as one of the implementing universities continues to strive to improve the quality of implementing the national program. This was also appreciated by the Director General of Teachers and Education (Dirjen GTK) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) Dr. Iwan Syahril, Ph.D. This was stated in the Focus Group Discussion which took place in Nusa Dua, Badung Regency, Thursday (18/11/2021) evening.
In the discussion, it was conveyed that the implementation of PPG at Undiksha in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in both 2020 and 2021 had generally been going well. In this program, there is the use of information technology to support the implementation of learning and other services. The Director General of GTK, Iwan Syahril, assessed that the innovations carried out by Undiksha were capital for transforming the implementation of PPG in the future as well as for responding to existing challenges.
He further explained that the innovations carried out need to be supported by strengthening Human Resources (HR), which includes expertise, such as literacy, numeracy, leadership, and so on. More than that, he also encouraged all stakeholders, including Education Personnel Education Institutions (LPTK) to collaborate with the world’s best places, either through comparative studies, scholarships, lecturer exchanges, and so on in order to provide learning experiences. “So that we can directly learn from the best places for later we apply it in the context in Indonesia,” he explained.
Iwan Syahril said that technology skills really needed to be possessed by teachers, both when dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and after. In its development, he sees the mastery of these skills showing a positive trend as indicated by the increasing use of online platforms in learning. Even this is found in areas that are included as 3T (Outermost, Frontier, and Disadvantaged). “We have a lot of data that shows the resilience of our teachers. For example, in the learning and sharing teacher, more than 70 percent of schools in Indonesia participate. There are teachers who join the online platform. Especially when I went to West Papua, a small island in the 3T area, how come I found that there were already teachers who were learning with this module and that was in makeshift internet conditions, going up and down but opening access to learning that was actually wider,” he said.
It is hoped that this momentum can continue in order to jointly advance education in Indonesia. “Even though the pandemic is gone, we want the momentum for teachers to use technology, this can happen. Our teacher’s problem is not being incapable, but having anxiety, and feeling unable to use it. But now during a pandemic, there is no choice. So like it or not you have to use it and when you start using it there are a few obstacles, you start to get used to it and after a while, you become used to it. The key is passion and will,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Undiksha Chancellor, Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Jampel, M.Pd., emphasized that Undiksha as an LPTK continues to strive to improve the quality of PPG implementation in order to produce teachers who are competent, excellent, and with character. “Earlier, the Director General said how we will equip teachers, and strengthen literacy, numeracy, and character. So this is something we have to pay attention to,” he said.
Through this discussion, the Chancellor of Jampel admitted that he gained a lot of new experiences and ideas that could be used as material for improvement. Undiksha will take advantage of the opportunities prepared by the Ministry, such as the PPG program for overseas students in collaboration with internationally recognized universities, especially in the field of education studies. Likewise with other opportunities aimed at increasing the capacity and quality of teachers. This discussion was not only attended by the Chancellor of Undiksha, but also Deputy Chancellor I and Deputy Chancellor III Undiksha, Heads of Bureaus, a number of deans, and PPG managers. (hms)
