BANDUNG, unpas.ac, id – “Becoming a teacher means deciding to take role in determining the nation’s future. Teachers’ duty is not only to teach, but also lead and guide in order to make young generation useful for the development of the country”, so it was stated and held tightly by Dra. Ida Yuniati Surtika, MM., an alumnus of class-of-1984, Department of Accounting Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Pasundan who have already worked in middle-school education for more than three decades.
Although she has not been prepared with pedagogic competence from the department she took, Ida decided to become a teacher because she feels she has a passion and is able to develop herself on it.
A Story of Ida, A Sweet-ended Devotion
Previousely, Ida has worked in a company several times, but she often switches offices/places because she was not really comfortable with it. Ida then taught ad middle-school with the status of honorary teacher while applying for selection of State Apparatus (Calon Pegawai Negeri Sipil, CPNS). Tit for a tat, Ida was confirmed to pass the selection and officially announced in 1992.
After being confirmed of passing the selection, Ida was placed in SMKN 1 Cianjur. Luckily, the skill competence at that school is based on the business and management, so it is still related to the study program she took. She was even entrusted as a Homeroom teacher and Head of Expert Program as well.
“It was approximately 15 years of teaching, I was mandated to be a School Headmaster. Since then, I started to learn about management and leadership. I also used to join the election of outstanding teacher at the regional level. But at that time, I was in Top 10,” she said.
Seeing the opportunities and supported by the willing to improve, Ida applied for the selection of headmaster in 2011. Ida passed the selection and was transferred to SMKN 1 Tanggeung after 20 years serving di SMKN 1 Cianjur.
At SMKN 1 Tanggeung, Ida was faced with various competence skills compared to the previous schools she has served to, such as automotive, husbandry and farming. These forced Ida to adapt and learn more about each characteristic of skill competences.
“As I work in SMKN 1 Tanggeung, I got the achievement of the best financial maintenance, Top 1 of outstanding School Headmaster in West Java as well as getting the opportunity to be one of 35 headmasters who are dispatched to Adelaide University Australia to attend Forum Group Discussion (FGD),” she said.
Being Active Nationally and Internationally
Besides getting the achievements provincially, Ida also obtained them from Regent of Cianjuar and was rewarded to get a moving-in to the city area. A little bit close to north, Ida was placed in SMKN 1 Cipanas which has different skill competences.
At SMKN 1 Cipanas, Ida worked on various programs and tried to guide students to participants in national-level competitions, establish cooperation with foreign countries, develop synchronized curriculum, and build industry class.
“Interestingly, when I entered, SMKN 1 Cipanas had never gotten into the national level. Alhamdulillah, over time, SMKN 1 Cipanas was able to win the National Student Art Festival and Competition (Festival and Lomba Seni Siswa Nasional, L2SN). This is the first time for SMKN 1 Cipanas to reach the national level and it is getting better,” she said.
At any school Ida, there are always achievements to be made. Currently, Ida’s journey ends at SMKN 1 Pacet. Ida’s hard work brought SMKN 1 Pacet to an international level, to be precise representing Indonesia at the 2019 FoodEx Japan Exhibition, which was attended by 288 countries.
“At SMKN 1 Pacet, I was ranked 1st when carrying out activities in GTK for the Ministry of Education and Culture for school revitalization and the SMK CEO Award. The institution itself won the Wiyata Mandala Insight (Wawasan Wiyata Mandala), the West Java Healthy School (Sekolah Sehat) title, and the National Agricultural Model School (Sekolah Model Pertanian Nasional),” she explained.
Approaching her retirement, Ida encourages teachers and students to continue to develop soft skills, be productive, creative, and innovative. She hopes that students would not only become operators, but will occupy a higher career path, or at least become entrepreneurs.
“Even though I’m almost retired, my enthusiasm for building education is still high. I invite Unpas alumni and anyone else, let us take advantage of the opportunity to work and be creative, do everything with confidence and responsibility, increase cooperation and collaboration to achieve optimal performance,” she concluded. (Reta)*