Photo illustration: Mukti Mulyana
This article is part of the Teacher's Note series on the key moments of becoming a beginning teacher.
The passion and enthusiasm of beginning teachers to educate the future generation so they can face global challenges shall keep burning.
The sentence above illustrates how amazing beginning teachers are. They are individuals who are young at heart, who keep moving and thriving. The world of education relies on and entrusts them with great hope to produce advanced future generations capable of facing global challenges.
However, hope is merely wishful thinking when the stakeholders have yet to align it with adequate welfare.
Moreover, the world presents different views to beginning teachers. The ease of accessing information encourages young teachers to be more open-minded. They can also see other opportunities that sometimes lead to a change of heart. Should they continue as educators or switch to other professions?
Being a non-permanent teacher is not easy, especially when burdened with heavy workload, high standard of professionalism, and time-consuming administrative tasks. Such circumstances often lead to a heavy heart, bring out the urge to quit and switch to other professions that offer better welfare.
For example, a beginning teacher decided to quit the job and become an online motorcycle taxi driver to improve his welfare. At the end of the day, one would do anything to get a higher income, including giving up a bachelor's degree and the teaching profession.
Eventually, being a teacher is a matter of heart and dedication. There are still many non-permanent beginning teachers who stay in this field and continue their struggle wholeheartedly to improve the country’s education.
All they have is a burning spirit and a sense of devotion. They continue to hone their skills and improve their knowledge to mould intelligent future generations. They work on the given tasks relentlessly despite the small reward. They believe that being an educator will bring grace from the Almighty.
*This Note was written by UDA, a primary school teacher in Central Java.
**All articles published in the Teachers' Notes are the views of the authors. They have been edited for popular writing purposes and do not represent the views of RISE Programme in Indonesia or RISE's funders.
