Singaraja- Hundreds of teachers from various regions took part in an academic orientation as a stage of the Teacher Professional Education (PPG) In Service Batch I year 2021 program at Ganesha University of Education, Friday (9/4/2021). This activity was carried out online because it was still in the Covid-19 pandemic situation. Through their participation in this national program, teachers are expected to be more professional and more adaptive to change.
PPG Undiksha Coordinator, I Gede Nurjaya, M.Pd., explained that this orientation was attended by 487 people who were divided into eight fields of study, namely Elementary School Teachers (SD), Early Childhood Education (PAUD), Mathematics, Science, Computer Education and Informatics, Indonesian, Balinese, and Physical Education, Sports and Health (PJOK). “The participants are divided into 14 groups,” he explained. Delivered further, the program participants came from six provinces, namely Aceh, North Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, Central Java, and Bali, with a total of 34 districts/cities. This diversity of origins reinforces the expression “PPG Undiksha is the rainbow of the archipelago”.
In addition to the initial orientation, the participants must also take part in other stages, namely deepening the material, learning design, comprehensive testing, and PPL. The final stage was the PPG Student Competency Test (UKM). “Implementation of PPG for each class for four months. So until July 2021,” he explained. Overall, in PPG 2021, Undiksha as one of the Education Personnel Education Institutions (LPTK) in Indonesia accepts 1,200 prospective students. Later there will be batch II and batch III, which will follow the same program as batch I.
Undiksha Deputy Chancellor for Academic and Cooperation Affairs, Dr. Gede Rasben Dantes, S.T., M.T.I., who opened the event, said that PPG is one of the spearheads of the government’s mainstay in producing superior, more professional, and more qualified teachers. Such a teacher is the foundation for “giving birth” to excellent Human Resources (HR), as is the ideal of the Indonesian nation to support realizing an advanced nation. “An excellent teacher is a teacher who never stops learning, always introspects and is willing to share knowledge with others. That is what is called a driving teacher, namely a teacher who is able to move other teachers to make changes to education in Indonesia with various activities carried out,” he said.
He further conveyed, in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0, technological developments have changed the order of life including changing the perspective on the implementation of education. It can be said as“all the pieces of information on your fingers”. Children are now also called digital natives, meaning they have been surrounded by technology since birth and they are indirectly“used to it”. The teacher, this change in the situation needs to be followed by an adaptive attitude, as well as preparing relevant learning methods. “If today’s teachers still teach in front of the class using the lecture method, students will not listen and will quickly get bored. Because they are used to learning through the internet or Youtube media which is able to present interesting pictures in learning material. So teachers should change their teaching methods and adapt to students,” he concluded. (hms)