EDUCATION AS A COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILTY. By: Zally Ardhita

Education plays an important role in developing a better country. As a developing country, Indonesia depends much on education to dignify and compete with other countries. Some improvements in searching a good system of education have been managed by the government to get the best educational system. It, other words, means that the government has been attempting to eliminate the old ones which are considered inappropriate to apply as they were outdated. However, education is not only a major responsibility of the government to grant but also all elements in society including the school, teachers, parents, and students to support the program of the government. 

There is an assumption that school with good facilities will produce good outputs. Otherwise, the school with disproportional facilities will produce bad outputs. Such assumptions cannot be judged that easy but they may be correct. It is because the school which provides good and proportional facilities will enable the students to get everything they need, feel comfortable to study, and create a conducive learning atmosphere. Therefore, the school which hopes to produce the outputs with good quality should renew or at least fulfill the students' need in learning.

Furthermore, the teaching and learning process will run smoothly if it is supported with an effort that comes from the teacher to create teaching and learning situation which can encourage and motivate the students to study. The boredom occurs when the teacher is unprepared and teaches with the same methods day by day. In addition, the students mostly like skillful and "up to date" teachers who can adapt themselves with the current issue of the youth. It means the role of the teacher to achieve the objective of learning is important.

Parents' watch also gives many contributions to their children growth of learning. Because, most of the students' time are likely to happen at home rather than at school. In average, students study at school for six hours in a day. But they spend the three quarters the rest of the day at home. So that, it also becomes a responsibility for the parents to pay much attention to their children school. 

Last but not least, the good education of the country depends on the students' involvement. How much they get involved to establish this country through education will affect the future of education. Their involvement to grow the future education of this country can be done by learning hard and improving what is needed to improve. Good student, simply, is someone who can manage his or her time to study and do their interest as well.

As a conclusion, it is strongly believed that the success of education in a country is a collective responsibility  among the government, school, teachers, parents, and the students. People cannot claim the success is obtained by a certain part and blame another part because of its failure. Therefore, as a collective responsibility, everyone should consider that the education belongs to them.    

Teaching: Beyond Its bitter and Sweet Story

I gave two classes an achievement test this morning. The first test was held at the first and second period and the other one was at the seventh and eight period. It ran quite smoothly at first. The students, some of them, thought very hard about the test, while some others seemed to enjoy it.

The night before, I prepared the materials for the test. I made the test into two types, left and right. In order to, I could make sure that the students did the test individually. After having finished, I went to copy the paper test.

This morning, with a great hope and expectation, I wished my students would have succeeded doing the test. The time was over. I directly asked the students to check their friends' test. I was a little bit worried about the result, but I kept trying to maintain my confident that my students would take the test easily. It was the time to score. I called my students one by one to get the result. It was, surprisingly, unbelievable. It was only small number of students who passed the standard passing score. I was upset. I lost my control. It was annoying me. I had told them to prepare the day before. I had explained the lessons as clear as possible. However, they failed doing the test.

I healed a deep breath. I could believe it. At last, I announced that I would have them to write summary about the materials of the test.

The bell rang. It was the time to go to the X-6 class. It was very noisy. I entered the class and directly distributed the students' test score to my students. They were extremely bad. No one passed the test. They all failed. I, with a rough voice, ordered the students to keep quiet. Then, I told them that I would give them another remedial test. I gave them different types of questions. The time allotment was 60 minutes. The students began to do it. Firstly, I could manage the class very well. But some time later, the students started to be annoying. They cheated on their friends' works. They even asked their friend with a loud noise that ignored me very much. Again, I lost control. I warned them not to cheat. But it didn't seem to work. I was so hopeless. The time was over. I was not sure that most of my students did the test by themselves. I asked the students to check on their friends' works. At last, I could another conclusion that they still did not pass the test.

I went home desperately. I thought very hard about my students. I asked myself, did I give them very difficult questions? Did I fail to deliver the materials to the students? Those questions came upon me over and over .I either would not blame my students for what had happened or I would not blame myself for being fail directing the students to be successful in their test.

In my opinion, finally, teaching is not an easy job . It was far different with a salesman who always succeed to make their costumers want to buy the product they sell eventually. I cannot make all my students follow my instruction and do exactly what I have taught. A student will have different capability in receiving the material than another student. Perhaps, I have failed to make all the students pass the test, somehow what make me feel relieved is that I still have some students who get better mark. Therefore, I feel that I am always able to see what is meant by successful is. I can see a successful when I ever taste a failure.