Sometime ago I mentioned that I would explain the reasons I left the school I was working in Jakarta.
Reasons being……..
1) I really needed a break
2) The environment – claustrophobic
3) The management – that looked at only short – term solutions and not long term ones
4) The loss of a sense of purpose

One of the main reasons I went into teaching? I needed a job that was fulfilling – something that gave me a sense of satisfaction and where I could see the results of my work, work that was meaningful.
It is this satisfaction that kept me going despite a lot of obstacles I faced along the way.
I have tried office based jobs before and home based jobs. None have given me the satisfaction that teaching in a class does.

This school in Jakarta certainly had its fair share of challenges – many systems not in place, untrained teachers and a management that thought anyone could be teachers.
It was quite an adjustment for me but I took it in my stride. Along the way I introduced new systems, mentored local teachers and offered solutions.
Then came the problems in the form of untrained teachers from Singapore. These were people who were sick of their lives in Singapore, had recently lost jobs or were unable to get jobs. You would think that they would come with a positive attitude - one of accepting and adjusting to a new environment.
WRONG!
These people openly looked down at the local teachers. The attitude? “ We are from a developed country and you from a third world country.” One comment by a Singaporean expat to a local teacher (who had graduated from one of the top universities in Indonesia – the expat didn’t know this ) “ You know, a lot of people like you don’t get jobs in Indonesia – you should be lucky to get this job.
Second these people had not taught in a school before. So they do not have a system in place to deal with students or even know how to teach. Yet the attitude is that “I’ll just wing it – as long as I get my pay at the end of the month, its ok”
When I became HOD, I had to check on some of these people – when I questioned why classes were so behind they would say I had an attitude because I was trained.
I could just ignore these problems but what really was the last straw was that year after year, the same problems cropped up as the management refused to look at long-term solutions.
eg They refused to train the local teachers as they were afraid the teachers would leave, once trained. So teachers had to pick up things on their own. It was indeed very frustrating.
Eg. They would hire people who were untrained as they were cheaper. But this brought a whole series of problems.

So although the local teachers were nice and the students were great , I generally didn’t see any purpose in the job anymore.

I am back in Jakarta after more than a month in Singapore. It is strange after getting used to Singapore. I didnt meet a lot of ex-students this time - why? just didnt feel like it. I did catch up with friends , some that i hadnt seen for more than ten years . Amazing how when u leave uni, you lose touch with people. But whether ex-students friends or colleagues the question is always why no kids. While I understand the concern after a while it becomes tiresome to answer their questions. At the same time its good to meet with people and share things so on the whole I enjoyed meeting my friends.
One thing I really liked was getting to the nearest mrt without getting wet as it was sheltered all the way. So a lot of the times I would just try my luck without the umbrella. Dont know if it is murphy's law or what. Whenever i brought my umbrella out - it wouldn't rain!
More later......