Country Report
Impact of Decentralization of Education Management
to School Improvement and Success
Suwarsih Madya
Yendri Wirda
Ministry of National Education
Jakarta, Indonesia
Abstract
Education decentralization has actually been implemented since 1975, especially for the management of elementary school, but the more comprehensive decentralization began in 2001 as mandated in Law No 22/1999 and continued by Law No.34/2004, including basic and secondary education. Related to this have been programs on school based management (SBM) and strengthening school-community relation. Through Decentralized Basic Education Projects (DBEP) implemented from 2003 until 2008, SBM program has been implemented. In line with education decentralization, programs such as school development plan (rencana pengembangan sekolah/RPS) and its replication, strengthening school committees and governance have also been implemented.
With regard to Law No. 22 Year 1999 on Local Government, the education sector is included as one of many sectors being decentralized. The main component which becomes under the authority of District local government is budget allocation for basic education services, quality improvement, efficiency, effective administration, and education access.
Some studies show that school improvement in some aspects has taken place. This is indicated, among others, by better school community relationships. The quality of better school building rehabilitation was achieved partly by community participation. Better schools are also indicated by the increasing number of schools which develop their own initiatives in improving their teaching and learning processes. Rising awareness of the importance of school cleanliness was also one of the SBM implementation effects. There havealso been attempts to improve student achievement through classroom competition.
The results above have led to some recommendation that improvement of education decentralization in other areas should be continuedthroughprograms such as continuous school-based management improvement and community-based education.
Table of Content
Table of Contentii
Abstractiii
- Introduction1
- Context and Issue1
A. The Socio-cultural, Geographical, and Political Contexts1
B. Issues3
- Decentralization of Education: Policies, Practices and Programs4
- Definitions4
- Policies5
C. Practices and Programs6
1. Decentralized Basic Education Project (DBEP) 6
2. Decentralized Basic Education (DBE)9
3. The Impacts of DBEP and DBE Activities9
a. School Development Plan (Rencana Pengembangan Sekolah/RPS) and
Replication 10
b. Strengthening School Committees and Governance 12
- Recommendation13
Bibliography16
1
I. Introduction
Education decentralization had actually been implemented since 1975. This is especially true for the management of elementary school. Since the establishment of Law No 22/1999 and Law No.34/2004, education decentralization includes all levels of basic education (primary and junior high school) and secondary education. This decentralization policy involves 33 provincies, 492districts (400 kabupaten and 92 kota) ( 2.7 million teachers of nearly 250 thousands basic and secondary schools in Indonesia (Pusat Statistik Pendidikan, 2006:1), serving more around 45 million students.
There are two kinds of decentralization, namely decentralization which gives greater authonomy to local government to run their own affairs, and, second, decentrazalition which givesgreater autonomy to schools to run education management at the school level (Alisjahbana, 2000, p.2). Therefore, some programs are implemented at the district level and some others are atthe school level.
In order to ensure the proper implementation of decentralized basic education, a number of capacity building programs have been implemented. Among these are two decentralized basic education projects carried out especially in underserved areas. One of the project, abbreviated DBEP, supported by the ADB loan and the Royal Netherland Grant has been implemented in Bali, NTB (Nusa Tenggara Barat or West Nusa Tenggara), NTT (Nusa Tenggara Timur or East Nusa Tenggara), and Simeuleu in Aceh, with the fund being managed directly by the related local governments. This project has been focused on the physical rehabilitation of the target schools, followed by the improvement of the teaching and learning quality. Meanwhile, the other project, abbreviated as DBE, supported by USAID has been implemented in Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, North Sulawesi, and North Sumatera, with the fund being managed by USAID. This project has been focused on the improvement of educational quality and life skills.
II. Context and Issue
- The Socio-Cultural, Geographical, and Political Contexts
The educational context in Indonesiais indeed unique in many ways. This has been to a great extent attributable to the multicultural and multilingual nature of the Indonesian society, in which one can easily identify differences—in language, ethnicity, and culture to mention a few. According to Ethnologue 2005 (Arief Rachman, 2007), Indonesia has 745 local languages, of which 271 are in West Papua, and dialects with their own characteristics. The Indonesian people, reaching around 230 million in number in 2009, consist of about 350 ethnic groups and tribes, with their own customs, types of villages, social structure, beliefs and religions. Throughout South-East Asia, this country probably has the greatest diversity of culture, caused by differing histories of the people’s contact with and responses to the outside world (Geertz, 1967). With all of these differences, however, the people are being united by being “Indonesian”, recognizing Indonesia as the only home water-land and Bangsa Indonesia the only nation, and esteeming highly Bahasa Indonesia as the only uniting language, as stated in the 1928 “Youth Oath” long before this country got its independence in 1945. All of this is clearly expressed in the motto “Bhineka Tunggal Ika” or Diversity in Unity.
Such a context is further made more unique by disparities of development created by differing degrees of ease with which people have access to information and development. The Indonesian geographical conditions vary from one area to area. Of more than 17,000 islands in the archipelago, which spread across the seas for 5,110 kilometres (3,194 miles) east to west and 1,888 kilometres (1,180 miles) north to south, only about 6,000 islands are inhabited. It should be noted that around 65% of the people live in Java, of which the area is only about 7%, making it the most densely populated island. Many of the islands contain rugged mountains, dense jungles, and also swamps that have posed problems of transportation and communication among the people. This has resulted in disparities of development, which have great influence on any innovative endeavour.
It is true that nowadays advancements of information and communication technology have helped a great deal in improving the above said situations and conditions, yet the problems remain unsolved, especially in remotes areas which are separated by dense forests, swamps, and mountains, or in small islands, which are separated by seas from the rest of the worlds. In these areas, people are deprived of easy access to information and education, and schools, due to delivery problems, cannot be easily equipped with textbooks, curriculum guidelines and laboratories as well as other facilities. Certain schools in isolated areas are seldomvisited by their supervisors/superintendents and their staff members, for many reasons, rarely have the opportunity to attend in-service education. Another problem is related to young teachers’ reluctance to take up teaching appointments in these areas. This has partly resulted in the mismatched teaching assignment. In the present decentralized system of government, which has been implemented since 2001, the problem has been worsened by the people’s rising regional ego, which has made it more difficult to redistribute teachers to solve problems of oversupply of teachers in some areas but a shortage in other areas.
The climate is another factor to be considered. Tropical heat, high degrees of humidity and salty wind do no good for the maintenance of the school hardware and software such as radio, audio-visual aids, computer hardware, and laboratory equipment. Due to financial constraints, only very few schools manage to provide air-conditioned rooms to store the equipment/materials. This has also contributed to the disparities in opportunities to enjoy innovation, which has in turn contributed to disparities in learning achievements.
Education decentralization is carried out in a certain political context.In 1998, there was a turn-over in the central government from Soeharto to Habibie. Soeharto, the then President, turned government to Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie—usually called Habibie, his Vice President to replace him as President. A year after the government turn-over, at the time of Habibie Presidency, on May 7 1999, Law No. 22 Year 1999 about Local Government was issued. This Law signaled decentralization era, including education.
The Bing bang approach was used in the Law No. 22/1999(Hoessein, 2002, p.2). The Bing Bang could be seen in some changes. First of all, there was a shift from the structural efficiency model which stressed on efficiency and uniformity to the local democracy model which stressed on democracy value and varieties of local government management. Second, there was a shift of provincial and district relationship. The disricts used to be dependent and subordinate, but they have become more independent and stopped being subordinate as mandated by the implementation of Law No. 22/1999. Third, the supervision model also changed from being coercive to persuasive in order that the local government discretion and initiative would be better.
In the same year as the enactment of Law No. 22, on June 7 1999,the legislative election was carried out (Wikipedia, 2009, This election was the first general election after the fall of the Soeharto Regime (the New Orde Regime). This election was followed by the appointment of Abdurrakhman Wahid as a new Presidentduring whose presidency further regulations on decentralization were established.
B. Issues
There are several issues concerning with the implementation of education decentralization, namely: budget allocation and its implication to basic education services (Toyamah and Usman, 2004);quality improvement, efficiency, effective administration, and education access (Manulang, and school development plan, governance and community (USAID, 2006, p.3-4).
The budget has remained a classical reason in the implementation of decentralization of education. As stated in PROPENAS 2000-2004 (in Toyamah and Usman, 2004, p.1), education development still encounters some problem, namely (i) low access to education among regions, income, and gender; (ii) low quality and low relevancy of education due to less relevant curriculum to the work demand, low quality and a shortage of teachers, and limited education facilities, and (iii) low quality management of education implementation. These problems are faced not only by Central Government, but also by local governments.
Manulang (2009) sees that education decentralization may have some impact. With greater authority, school has an opportunity to manage and empower their own resources which willeventually contribute to the improvement of its quality. Education decentralization may also improve efficiency in finance by cutting unnecessary cost. Education decentralization can alsocontribute to more effective administration because it cutsbureaucratic hassle. With the implementation of education decentralization, there is more opportunity for district governments to take initiatives to improve access to education in their areas, including remote areas.
to develop school planning, governance, and improvement of community participation since 2005. USAID maintains that school planning and budgeting shouls beconducted by school principals and teachers themselves. USAID has therefore trained schools and their stakeholders in planning techniques. USAID has also helped schools promote transparency and accountability by involving its community in the planning process.
III. Decentralization of Education: Policies, Practices and Programs
- Definitions
There are certain concepts underlying education decentralization in Indonesia. In the decentralization system in Indonesia, such terms as otonomi daerah (district autonomy) anddaerah otonom (decentralized district) are used. ‘District autonomy’refers to the rights, authority, and obligation of decentralized districts to organize and to manage its own government affairs and local community in accordance with existing rules (Paragraph 5, Article 1, Law No. 32 Year 2004). Meanwhile, ‘decentralized district’refers to the unity of juridicial community that has certain boundary and authority to organize and to manage government affairs and local community according to local community aspiration within the system ofthe Republic of Indonesia (Paragraph 6, Article 1, Law No. 32 Year 2004). In short, district autonomy refers to local government autonomy, while decentralized district refers to district which has been decentralized.
There are three principles in the decentralization system in Indonesia, namely decentralization, deconcentration, and assistance task. Decentralization itself is defined as the transfer of authority by the central government to decentralized districts (kabupaten/kota) to organize and to manage government affairs in the system ofthe Republic of Indonesia (Paragraph 7, Article 1, Law No. 32/2004). Meanwhile, deconcentration is the transfer of government authority by the central government to governors as government representatives and/or to vertical organizations in a certain territory (Paragraph 8, Article 1, Law No. 32/2004). Assistance task is the assignment from the central government to districts and/or village, from the provincial government to the district or village government and from the district government to the village government to carry out certain tasks (Paragraph 9, Article 1, Law No. 32/2004).
B. Policies
Policies of the education decentralization system in Indonesia are formulated in several rules and regulations, namely: (1) Law No. 32/2004 about Local Government; (2) Law No. 25/1999 about the Financial Distribution between Central Government and Local Government; (3) Law No. 20/2003 about National Education System; and (4) Government Regulation No. 38/2007 about the Division of Government Affairs among the Central Government, Provincial Government, and District and City Governments.
Decentralization in Indonesia, including education decentralization,has been implemented since 2001. The decentralization era was generally introduced by the enactment of Law No.22/1999 on Local Government in 2001 following around two years’ necessary preparation. Article 11 of this Law stipulates that education implementation is part of district governments’ authority. Not long afterwards, however, as stipulated in Law No. 34/2004, which is in fact the revision of Law No. 22/1999 on Local Government mentioned above, education is not only the dictrict/city government’s authority (article 14), but also the provincial government’s authority (article 13). The details of each government’s authorities are explained in Government Regulation No.38/2007 on Government Authority Division among the Central Government (para 2, article 2), the Provincial Government (para 2, article 7), and the District/City Government (para 2, article 7). There are 31 affairs which are transferred to the provincial and district governments, and one of them is education.
Education decentralization has actually been implementented since 1975 but limited only tosome components of elementary school (finance, infrastructure and personnel). Since the enactment of Law No 22/1999,which, as has been mentioned before,has been revised into Law No 34/2004, education decentralization includesthe organization of all components of basic and secondary education, with pre-school, basic, and secondaryeducationprograms being supervised by the district authority, while special education and schools of international standards by the provincial government authority.
Education decentralization is also mandated in Law No. 20/2003 on National Education System (Articles 8, 9, 10, and 11). Articles 8 and 9 recognize the importance of community participation. In education decentralization, community has the right to taking part in planning, implementing, supervising, and evaluating education programs. This Education Law also states that the community has both the obligation and rights to supporting the provision of resources.
Articles 10 and 11 of the Education Law,formulate the government obligations and rights. The central and local governments havethe rights to directing, guiding, assisting, and supervising the education implementation according to regulations. The central and local government obligations include (i) providing education service; (ii) ensuringthe implementation of quality education for every citizen without discrimination;and (iii) providing budget for implementing education for every citizen aged seven to fifteen years.
C. Practices and Programs
As has been mentioned before, of the many programs of education decentralization have been the two big projects, i.e. DBE and DBEP. The former received financial assistance from USAID, while the latter from ADB (US$125,000,000.00) and the Royal Netherland Grant (US$ 36,302,862.00), both with the counterbudgets being provided by the provincial and district governments. The former involved 4,244 schools located in six provinces and the latter 5,273 schools located in four provinces. Some programs implemented atthe school level include the school development plan, and strengthening school committees and governance. The programs will be described griefly below.
1. Decentralized Basic Education Project (DBEP)
General Information
DBEP is generally aimed at supporting the completion of the quality nine-year basic education program, especially for the disadvantaged and marginalized communities. DBEP has the following objectives (Coleman, 2007, p.3): (a) to strengthen school management; (b) to support minor and medium school building rehabilitation; (c) to improve poor children participation in education; (c) to alleviate school drop out; (d) to improve gender mainstreaming in education; (e) to improve community participation at schools; and (f) in general, to improve education quality.
Meanwhile, DBEP Component 1 program is intended to develop school capacity which serves poor children in implementing SBM (Directorate of Junior High School Management, 2003, p.7 in Coleman, 2007, p.3). There were 4,244 schools, including 3,458 primary schools (3,159 SD and 299 MI), and 786 secondary schools (507 SMP and 279 MTs) involved in this program. In this program, based on school development plan (RPS), schools were granted the so-called school development fund (DPS) for two or three years in order to improve the quality of their learning.
In this program, 11 aspects of SBM were introduced: (a) curriculum and teaching and learning management; (b) human resources management; (c) inside-classroom learning environment management; (d) outside-classroom learning environment management; (e) health and safety management for students and all other school staff; (f) school infrastructures maintenance and management; (g) school utilities maintenance and management; (h) time management; (i) information management; (j) inside and outside school stakeholders relationship management; and (k) finance management (Coleman, 2007, p.4).