Restoring Teacher Professionalism

Teachers are professional educators who educate, teach a body of knowledge, guide, train, assess, and evaluate students. A teacher here is defined as someone who has devoted themselves to teaching knowledge to students; teachers do not only teach knowledge but also educate, direct, and train their students so that they understand the knowledge taught easily, quickly, and in an organised way. Thus, teachers do not merely teach formal education, but also non-formal education, such as how to behave and act politely towards elders, and teachers can become figures whose attitudes and actions are emulated by students. As the Sundanese proverb says, a teacher is someone who must be heeded and imitated (digugu dan ditiru), because a teacher is a learning agent, since teachers act as facilitators, motivators, and also engineers in the students' learning process. Teaching as a profession is the initial foundation for the success of education in an educational institution. Students' success is also due to the service of a teacher. For this reason, teachers must also meet criteria, including adequate knowledge, proficiency, and skills so that they are able to manage the teaching and learning process effectively. This creates an appropriate attitude in renewing and disseminating ideas more effectively, as well as having good teaching physical condition and broad achievements. In addition, professionalism is a person's work or activity that becomes a source of livelihood, requires expertise, mastery or proficiency in accordance with certain quality standards or norms, and is complemented by professional education. Teaching as a profession means a position that requires special expertise or skills as a teacher, and not just anyone is able to practise this profession in the field of education, even though in reality there are still many people who work as teachers but do not have an educational background in teacher training. In this regard, a teacher has duties and responsibilities towards their students. Among a teacher's responsibilities, as already touched upon in the definition of a teacher, are to teach and to educate so that students become good, high-quality individuals with good and polite intellectual and moral sides. The last point of a teacher's duties and responsibilities is being able to encourage students to carry out tasks by trying hard and never giving up; at this point teachers can give gifts or appreciation to their students. As regards teacher competence, Law No. 14 of 2005 explains that the main task of teacher professionalism is to educate, teach, and direct students on the formal path from early childhood education to upper secondary education. A teacher's competence includes personality, pedagogical, social, and professional competence. First, personality competence here means the ability that reflects maturity, authority, and noble character so that one can become a role model for students. Second, pedagogical competence is the ability to understand students, carry out learning with planning and development, and evaluate the learning outcomes of students. Third, social competence is an ability a teacher must have to communicate and socialise with students, students' parents, and the community at school. And finally, professional competence is a teacher's ability to master broader learning material, including the subject curriculum and mastery of the structure of educational methodology. As an education expert, a teacher must also always apply and carry out the teacher code of ethics. This code of ethics is a guideline to regulate the relationship of teachers with colleagues, students, leaders, and the community, as well as when carrying out a task, in order to smooth relationships for the sake of the optimal development of students. In addition, this teacher code of ethics emphasises the importance of carrying out duties professionally and responsibly and acting appropriately. Before becoming a teacher, one also needs to pass several tests. This is done so that those who work in education have the appropriate quality and background. The tests that must be passed before becoming an educator are, first, a written test, which is used to test the prospective teacher's understanding of the field of study to be taught. Second, an interview test, used to find out the character or personality of the prospective teacher. Third, microteaching, used to see what approaches and learning methods will be applied. After prospective teachers take the tests, if they pass, a teacher will obtain teacher certification. Teacher certification is the awarding of an educator certificate to teachers who have met the standards and eligibility and have professional ability as educators. The purpose of this certification, besides determining a teacher's eligibility to carry out their role as an educator, includes other goals, among them improving the quality of education, improving the dignity of teachers, protecting the image of the teaching profession from incompetent practices, and improving teacher welfare through professional allowances. However, even so, there are still many individuals who do not meet the requirements; for example, many teachers do not yet hold a bachelor's degree (S-1), and many still do not have teacher certification, where a teacher's certification is proof of being a professional teacher. There are even many teachers whose learning processes do not yet meet the competence expected of a teacher. For this reason, the position of the teacher needs to be restored as a fully professional member of society, one who must fulfil professional competence as a teacher, hold certification as an educator, and be accountable for their profession. To that end, the government needs to make breakthroughs in policy to address and restore teacher professionalism. Examples include improving teachers' academic qualifications by providing financial assistance so that they can complete their education until they obtain a diploma; completing certification for teachers by awarding certificates to those who have not yet received an educator certificate; and increasing competence to develop teacher professionalism by making breakthroughs in carrying out continuing professional development activities. In order to support the Merdeka Belajar curriculum, which aims to realise Pancasila students, teachers and education personnel need to make new breakthroughs or transformations so that the programmes run by the government proceed smoothly. Therefore, the government needs to implement strategies to fulfil this curriculum, through the guru penggerak (driving teacher) programme, teacher training, and the creation of organisations. This is done solely with the aim of realising teacher performance as effective, professional educators. From everything described above, it can be concluded that becoming a professional teacher requires going through several stages, including a written test, an interview, and microteaching. In addition, teachers also need to comply with the teacher code of ethics to realise good relationships between teachers and students as well as students' guardians. Professional teachers also need to have the competence of a teacher so that they can be accountable and have expertise or skills as educators. As in this Merdeka curriculum, teachers are able to help students better appreciate and understand the culture and values of Pancasila, develop an attitude of independence in students, and manage time and the management of learning resources itself.