How to Become a Professional Teacher

Education is a complicated subject to discuss. It may seem trivial, yet behind it lie many implicit meanings. Education is not only a process of earning a diploma or a degree. It is also a place where learners gradually get to know the knowledge of the world. Everywhere, education is identified with a teacher: the teacher provides the learning material, and the student carries out or receives it. Indonesia needs education as a means of making its young generation intelligent. For that reason, it is important to know how to become a good and professional teacher.

“Teacher” is not merely a word. It is a title that carries a heavy responsibility. A teacher is someone who provides learning material in academic as well as non-academic fields. The title of teacher can be conferred formally and informally. Formally, it comes through a diploma, and informally through the environment. Put simply, the formal title of teacher is obtained through a diploma, while the informal title is obtained from the surrounding community. For example, someone who is skilled at reading the Al-Qur’an and is able to teach it is usually called a Qur’an teacher (guru ngaji).

In fact, becoming a teacher does not require higher education. Anyone can become a teacher, provided that they have a certain skill and are able to teach it. The skill a teacher has can make teaching a profession. A profession is closely tied to a position. Teaching as a profession means someone who has a skill obtained through education, then holds a position and receives a wage. Put simply, a teacher can be said to have a job. The designation of teacher as a profession is reinforced by the Teacher Bill (article 1, paragraph 4), which states: “professional is the ability to do work in accordance with one’s expertise and dedication to others.

In addition, Law of the Republic of Indonesia number 14 of 2005 concerning Teachers and Lecturers states that a teacher is a professional educator whose main duties are to educate, guide, teach, assess, train, and evaluate learners from early childhood education, basic education, and secondary education to formal education. In the learning process, a teacher can be called both a leader and a facilitator: a leader of the course of activities within the scope of teaching, and a facilitator in the students’ learning process. As a facilitator, a teacher is obliged to provide support and direction.

To make the process of delivering learning material successful, a teacher must have competence. Competence here means the ability a person has based on skills, knowledge, and work attitude. A teacher must have the competence or skill to understand the learning material, create teaching methods, manage the class, understand the basics of education, control the interaction between students and teachers, give appreciation for students’ learning achievements, and so on.

Understanding the learning material is necessary so that students can easily grasp, in a simple way, what the teacher teaches. Creating methods is done so that students’ understanding can improve dramatically, supported by interactive games and the like. For class management and interaction, the teacher is placed as a facilitator, providing a comfortable environment for learners through the interaction between the two. In addition, the teacher also gives learners the opportunity to explore knowledge in their own ways. Here, the teacher only guides, protects, and listens to the students.

Besides competence, a professional teacher must abide by a code of ethics. A code of ethics is a principle or norm of behaviour for those who practise a profession, intended to highlight the distinctive character of each. More simply, as teachers we have our own code of ethics which will highlight a protective attitude. As teachers, we must show empathy, warmth, comfort, sincerity, and openness toward our students. A teacher’s code of ethics concerns not only learners, but also fellow teachers, school leaders, and the community.

With fellow teachers, a teacher must be cooperative, give mutual support, and treat one another equally. Among colleagues, teachers collaborate to analyse the needs of their learners, whether in terms of learning material, facilities, or the learners’ own comfort. With school leaders, teachers and the principal must nurture mutual trust. The principal gives tasks to teachers as an expression of trust, and likewise the teacher trusts that what the leader assigns can be completed well. In interaction with the community, a good relationship between the two is very important. This is done so that the community’s trust in teachers, who are after all educators, does not fade, so that they can calmly entrust their children to the school bench. The interaction between the two can be strengthened further by collaboration between teachers and local industry.

After discussing a teacher’s code of ethics, we turn to the requirements or tests for becoming a teacher. Indeed, in essence everyone who has a skill is able to become a teacher. However, not everyone can carry the responsibility of a teacher with professional status. Teaching as a profession can be pursued by completing formal education and several tests. These include a written test covering knowledge, personality, and skills. Next are a Qur’an memorisation (hafidz) test (if under the Ministry of Religious Affairs), a health test, an interview, and microteaching (a test of the teaching method the prospective teacher will use). All of these are held to screen prospective educators of the nation so that they can produce graduates of a high level of quality.

After passing these tests, teacher certification will then be held. Teacher certification is the process by which a certificate is awarded to teachers who have met the standards of eligibility for the teaching profession. A teacher who has been certified gains an advantage when transferred to another school that may be more promising. Put simply, teacher certification is like a verification process or a stamp of being a professional teacher. However, the requirements for certification need to be considered carefully. They include having completed an academic undergraduate degree (S1) or equivalent, having been appointed as a civil servant (PNS), and having at least 5 years of teaching experience, whether in the same school or different ones. Teachers who are not civil servants must hold the status of permanent foundation teacher (GTY), and finally must have a unique number for educators and education staff (NUPTK) consisting of 16 digits.

From the whole discussion above, anyone can become a teacher if they have a skill and are able to teach it. However, not everyone is able to hold the status of teacher as a profession. The difference between the two lies in the education pursued and the various tests that have been described. Being a teacher is not merely giving learning material, but acting as a guide for learners’ development, second only to their parents. For that reason, a teacher has no right to behave arbitrarily without regard for the code of ethics. And the purpose of the code of ethics, or norms that must be followed, is to give a good impression and foster good relationships between teachers and their surroundings.