Placed in Balairung Room of PT Telkom, Surabaya, Next Edu held an International Seminar entitled The Secret of Being A Great Teacher in Finland. It was attended by more than 200 participants and they were mostly education practitioners such as teachers, school principals, foundation officers, school owners etc. It lasted for about three hours. It ran well with relaxed and nice atmosphere without losing its significant content of the presentation material from the two speakers, Munif Chatib and Allan Schneitz.

As you know that the best quality education now is still in the hand of Finland. Next Edu itself, starting from February 21 to March 6, 2015 went to Finland for a comparative study packed in program namely Finland Education Exchange in Finland and some other European countries: The Netherlands, Germany, and France. In Finland, Next Edu visited a school namely Dream School whose director was Allan Schneitz. When Next Edu was there, they got a lot of inspiration from Dream School.

In this occassion, Munif Chatib opened the seminar by presenting some findings and fact about Finnish Education. They were experienced and witnessed when he led the Next Edu team in Finland Education Exchange program last month. Some important points he explained the audiences were : The minimum degree requirement for teachers in Finland was post graduate ; all education level from kindergarten to doctoral degree was free of charge ; Every school in Finland was government school and most of them had their own curriculum based on The National Curriculum, and there was no teacher's performance assessment since the teacher quality in Finland was undoubtedly proven and guaranteed.

Munif Chatib also showed some pictures of condition and ambience in Dream School he had taken when he was there. They represented how Dream School was a convinient place to learn. Well, it was true that from the outside, it seemed that there was nothing special about it, yet if we entered into it we found fun and enjoyable scenery such as clean and dynamic classroom. The tables in the classroom for students had small wheels on each of its legs so it had to be very easy to move it depending on every setting of learning. Every classroom wall had creaticve and dynamic displays. Well, the teachers' room was also as convinient and clean as the classroom. It would undeniably make everyone in the school feel so convinient.

In his presentation, Munif Chatib did a little comparison between the condition in Finland and Indonesia. In his opinion, Education in Indonesia might be not as advanced as in Finland, but as long as we all focused on making small changes in our own schools, becoming a country having quality education like Finland was not something impossible.

Education in Indonesia might always undergo some macro issues such as curriculum problem, acts change, and other policies. Yet, as long as all the school practitioners focussed on micro issues, like keeping on making their school always progressive and developed. It actually made the macro ones be nothing to worry.

Just like what Munif Chatib's statement, Allan Schneitz in his presetation said when we wanted to solve those micro things so we could start a small step, i.e. making the school the second home for students, teachers, and staffs. It only required a small favour, doing it with your heart. He also told some stories about the school he ran, The Dream School.

It all started when he showed the audience some photos of learning activites in classroom applying creative method and teachers who were required not to be kings in the classroom. In the photos, some teachers dressed in clown costumes just like the students wore. The learning process in the classroom was always two-ways, not only the students learned from the teachers but also the teachers learned from them.

Of all the material he presented, the most important part of his presentation was when he mentioned the academic test. It made all the audiences surprised, shocked, laughed or even just giving a little smile. With the assistance of Next Edu Trainer, Vita Wardhana who helped translating what he said in Indonesia, Allan asked some questions to the audiences, "Do you children like tests?" They altogether answered "Nooooo". Then he asked another question, "Do you like correcting tests?" They still altogether gave the same answer "Nooooo". The last questions he gave the audiences was, " Do your children like homework?", No one answered it. Suddenly there was a female audience who raised her hand shyly. She said her child liked it very much. He said that was amazing, then he plagued her a little while saying "well, I am sure you are lying" and everyone in the seminar laughed.

"So if every student doesn't like tests, what those tests are actually for?" Allan questioned the audience once again. "That's why, schools in Finland give no tests and stardardization of learning result". The test is only given when a student is already 16 years old," said he.

Since there was no test, schools in Finland from kindergarten to high school, every student automatically went to the next grade, without having any student left in the same grade. And the most important things, Allan emphasized that creating The Great Schools didn't require money as the most important factor. Expensive or cheap school didn't have anything to do with The Great Ones. Making the great ones into concrete was only with one key i.e. the efforts to create an enjoyable, convinient, non-burdening learning process in classroom. And of course, it needed one main capital, it had to be done with your heart. (ANA)