PEDAGOGIC PUBLIC LECTURE: INTEGRATED TEACHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 4.0

Bandung, UPI

On Thursday, September 5, 2019, a public lecture on pedagogics was held in the auditorium of JICA building, FPMIPA UPI. The lecture involved three great speakers whose expertise is in the education field: Prof. Dr. H. Sunaryo Kartadinata, M.Pd. (former UPI’s President and currently ambassador to Kazakhstan), Prof. Dr. H. Mohammad Fakry Gaffar, M.Ed. (former UPI’s President), and Prof. Dr. H. Didi Suryadi, M.Ed. The event was attended by students and lecturers from various study programs.

The lecture focused on how to improve the quality of teachers nationally. Components that are needed by teachers were explained, that educators have to master the ability of teaching and understand the nation’s characteristic with its diversity. Most important of all, teachers have to understand the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution on teacher education and education systems in schools.

Prof. Dr. H. Mohammad Fakry Gaffar, M.Ed. poured his thoughts on current education in Indonesia. “Regarding the industrial revolution 4.0, nowadays everything is about internet. Technologies are getting more advanced each day, but research shows that Indonesia is still comfortable with conventional ways of living, and especially teaching,” he said. “Professional and qualified teachers are needed to help students face this era. We need to fix the education system. We need a new teacher profile.”

He again explained that the current system has a lot of programs to facilitate teacher education, but those programs walk on its own and “ignores” each other. They have no connection to one another. “The quality is still very low. It’s saddening,” he expressed. “Hopefully we can change all that for the better.” (Tara Devina Putri)