The Indonesian teachers at TBI Bekasi are of a high standard both with qualifications and
experience. The teachers have to take a written test and then an observation. On speaking
to the teachers they say that the written test is a fairly unusual request as most schools
don’t require an in-house test.

Teachers then work part-time with schedules changing weekly. Typically teachers are
given classes and they teach that class on a regular day over a period of time however,
occasionally the schedule does change. As they work part-time none of the teachers have
an official contract so they can leave whenever they want and Binsar can fire them
whenever they want, which he has done so. As they have no contract they consequently
have no THR payment, paid holidays/sick days etc.

One teacher (teacher A) was asked to teach classes at the company in Cikarang. She was
paid for the class but Binsar refused to pay for transportation time. He initially provided
transport and then asked her to arrange it herself. This teacher (teacher A) then found out
that another teacher (teacher B) was being paid extra time. This was because this teacher
(teacher B) was teaching two classes with an hour or so gap in between but Binsar paid
her for the non-teaching gap. Teacher A queried this with Binsar and said that she didn’t
want to do the company class as she didn’t like organising the transport herself and not
being paid travel time. Binsar didn’t like this challenge and said that she was showing a
lack of committment and didn’t have a future at TBI. Teacher A then resigned before she
was officially fired.

Teacher B then had her own problems with Binsar. Typically teacher B taught outside of
school in various 100% local teacher company contracts. However, during the Summer
Binsar was having a teacher shortage and asked her to teach at the school. So I didn’t
actually meet her until I’d been there several months. She initially taught exam, business
and GE classes. She said that she didn’t like teaching children.

However, as Binsar was particularly understaffed on Tue/Thurs (bad scheduling
discussed earlier) he pressured her into trying this children’s class, Kitty. I’ve taught that
particular children’s class and of the class at TBI it is one of the most difficult as the
children are very young. TBI classes don’t have much stimulation for the children and
consequently they get bored of doing bookwork pretty quickly so you do need to plan
carefully how to present materials and keep them happy. Several of them are prone to
fighting each other and one is very spoilt and refuses to do any work, he just walks around
the class and irritates the other kids. He won’t even do any coloring in or anything. So it is
a difficult class.

Anyway, teach B stuck with it for several weeks, maybe 1-2 months until the Idul Fitri
holiday. After Idul Fitri she told Binsar that she was busy and could no longer teach that
class (probably was a lie but could have been true. Even if it was a lie she had still given it
a go, without training or anything). So, Binsar said that she was showing a lack of
commitment and fired her on the spot. So he’s lost a good teacher and now has to send
another teacher out to teach her classes so is even more short-staffed. Binsar then called
all the staff into a meeting the next week and yelled at us about a lack of committment,
when we hadn’t even done anything.