General Information

Background

As we all know the education for young generation is the future of all nations. This is unavoidable and of foremost importance for our nation, Indonesia. There are so many problems faced by our nation in education, such as the lack of school buildings, teachers welfare, teaching methods, teachers quality, all of which make education quality in this country relatively lower than that of other countries.

Nevertheless the most directly related one to determining education quality is the teacher quality. As the main agent of education nowadays there are so many Indonesian teachers whose teaching capabilities are very weak, teaching methodologies only use one way communication, who treat students as objects that need to be filled with knowledge, in addition to the fact that they themselves do not know how to develop their professional competence.

Data from the Ministry of National Education states that only 64.1% of teachers at junior high senior have adequate capabilities to teach, while at senior high there are only 67.1%. The portrait of education in Indonesia is clearly showing a disheartening condition. Consequently students do not enjoy learning process and are not optimally developed. It is no wonder therefore that we frequently hear (even experience ourselves) so many complaints about the quality of graduates who are not ready to enter the labor market.

One of our senior education icons, Mochtar Buchori, once said: "To secure our future, all we have to do is invest in education. The future belongs to today's children. What kind of future do we expect to have, if we ignore the current problems in childen education".

Therefore it is only natural that our discouraging education conditions must be changed, assisted to improve its quality, for the sake of the quality of human capital in this country in the future.

ProVisi Education as a company who works to improve education quality launches an initiative to provide greater contribution in enhancing the quality of national education by holding Konferensi Guru Nusantara (Nusantara Teachers Conference) as a forum that provides opportunities for our teachers to learn, share and grow together. Referring to UNESCO’s five pillars of education: Learn to know, learn to do, learn to think, learn to be, learn to live together, teachers need to obtain insights and information about education paradigms, various learning methods, including innovation in teaching and students character development. More than that Konferensi Guru Nusantara also aims to boost the pride of teacher profession which has been long neglected.

Only by improving teachers quality our education quality can be improved. Teachers is the main agent of our children and the next generation.

Therefore in this opportunity we would like to invite your corporation to jointly contribute for the improvement of education condition in this country. By supporting Konferensi Guru Nusantara your role is highly significant for the progress of education in our country.

Why Having A Teacher Conference at Province Level?

After successfully holding Konferensi Guru Indonesia in 2006 and 2007 in Jakarta, in addition to handful experience in organizing Teacher Club forum since 2003 also in Jakarta, there were many inputs and suggestions we got, both from internal organizer and conference participants. Three things are worthy to note :

1. The cost of coming to Jakarta for participants is very expensive. The transportation and accomodation costs are more than the cost of attending the conference itself.
   
2. The quality of teachers participants of the conference. Conference participants mostly came from Greater Jakarta area which in general have better competence than teachers who work in remote areas. These teachers in fact have lower probability of attending such conference and develop their knowledge due o limited fund and information access. Therefore it is they who in fact more in need for such a teacher conference.
   
3. Data regarding sponsors. There are several corporations which are interested to sponsor teachers in their area of operations to participate in a conference in Jakarta. 60-70% of total sponsorship is allocated for transportation and accomodation for the teachers. In other words most of the costs are note directly related to the conference event itself.

The following are some participants comments from previous teacher conference in 2006 and 2007:

• ” I am glad to be here, although my saving almost gone for this, luckily I have relatives in Jakarta, so I can save some accomodation cost.” (participants from Sulawesi Utara)
  
  
• ” We are lucky to come because there is company XXX who supported us. But our friends cannot come, although they are really willing to learn but they were not chosen to be sponsored.”. (a group of teachers from Aceh).
  
  
• ” The presentation material and the speakers are great, we are from remote areas. Please organize similar events in our province.”. (participant from Kalimantan Timur).
  
  
• ” Don’t have it always in Jakarta. Teachers in remote areas also need to attend conferences. Teachers in Jakarta are quite good already.”. (participant from Jakarta).
  

Judging from comments, requests, and real needs, it is only natural to have a Teacher Conference at province level. Having a national teacher conference is good, but a Teacher Conference at province level is even more important and needed. If we want to improve Indonesian education quality, then it is for the teachers in remote areas such event must be provided.

Based on this reasoning in 2008 we choose to leave teacher conference in Jakarta and focus to have Konferensi Guru Nusantara di Samarinda. We invite your corporation to participate and support this event.

A detail event program and sponsorship packages are included in this proposal.

Purposes and Targets

1. To help teachers in remote areas improve their knowledge, learning paradigm and self-esteem in delivering quality learning process for students in their own schools.
   
   
2. To provide opportunities for teachers to share experiences about effective learning practices
   
   
3. To encourage and support education experts from in-and-outside the country to contribute and actively be involved in improving education quality in Indonesia, especially in remote areas.
   
   
4. To promote teacher’s dignity and teaching as profession through a quality conference
   
   

Expected Outcomes

• Shifted paradigm on teachers’ mind both regarding learning concept (from teacher centered to student centered learning), role of an educator (from single source of knowledge to learner’s facilitator and motivator), as well as the meaning of education (from focus on result and exam to focus on process and developing thinking and life skills)
  
  
• Increased quality and effectiveness of learning process at schools in remote areas
  
  
• Increased self esteem and pride of teachers in remote areas
  
  
• Increased awareness of local stakeholders –directly or indirectly about the importance of education and the need to develop the role of teachers to enhance quality of life of Indonesian society

Time and Venue

Konferensi Guru Nusantara 2008 is held for teachers and principals of primary and secondary schools. The theme is “Quality Teachers Towards Quality Schools”

Date : 26 - 27 November 2008

Venue : Stadion Madya Sempaja, Samarinda- Kalimantan Timur.

Theme

Various topics will be presented and discussed for two full days. We can learn not only problems and education visions in Indonesia, but also other things from education systems in other countries.

Main theme: “ Quality Teachers Towards Quality Schools” 

Sub themes :

1. Up-to-date learning concepts in the classroom
2. Quality learning with minimum facilities
3. Becoming professional teachers
4. Maximizing learning effectiveness in the classroom
5. Values education