By: Salahuddin
Introduction
It has been asserted that schools in rural communities play significant roles in improving rural life. A number of writers (eg. Barley & Beesley, 2007; Moriarty, Danaher, & Danaher, 2003 ; Halsey, 2006) contend that rural schools are essential for sustainability of rural communities. However, schools in rural communities keep facing one particular challenge which inhibits the process of achieving objectives in improving rural life. The challenge is to attract and retain teachers. Indeed, rural schools experience more difficulty in recruiting and retaining qualified staff than schools in metropolitan (Gehrke & McCoy, 2007; Halsey, 2005 in White & Reid, 2008).
In Indonesian rural contexts this particular problem is paramount. One clear example is the case which is faced by my organisation SMPN 2 Wera, a rural junior secondary school. Within the periods between 1997 and 1999 the government appointed 18 teachers for the school. However, since 2003 the school has been facing teachers shortage as most of the teachers had moved. Such a case, indeed, illustrates the difficulties in attracting and retaining teachers in rural schools. The literatures surrounding rural education appear to give little attention on this particular issue. This is due to reason that there is only a few research conducted in the topic of attracting and retaining teachers in rural schools.
This paper will focus on exploring and analysing the case of attracting and retaining teachers in Indonesian rural school contexts. For this purpose, I explore the case in my organisation, SMPN 2 Wera. In particular, my own experiences will be used as the basis of analysis. The anecdotal evidence will be in form of ‘My Story’ which reveals my own journey of experiencing working and teaching in rural school. What factors contribute to teachers attrition and how the factors are supposed to tackle will be the guiding question of this paper.
(NB. For the complete article, please contact me)
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