Enhancing School-Based Management in Indonesia Policy Brief March 2011 KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN NASIONAL 60457 increase local accountability for the provision and quality of education delivered by the school increase the relevance and flexibility of education to local conditions and needs stimulate participation in, and a sense of ownership of, the school by its various community stakeholders generate a stronger local demand and more financial and human resources for education. An essential part of this process is school-based management (SBM). Through SBM, individual schools, with community participation, are encouraged to: Photo by Mudi Astuti define their own particular "vision" and mission within Interviewer: "What kind of relationship do you have with the context of national legislation and system-wide goals the local school?" diagnose their problems, define their needs, and identify their limitations and resources Respondent (a young mother in rural Malang District): "At the age of six, I surrendered my child to the school; six years establish a school development plan ­ with priorities, later, I got him back. I was only asked to go to the school goals, targets, and programmes -- within a framework and when he did something wrong or when the school needed using standards set at the central level (e.g., determining money." local curriculum content, adjusting calendars to local economic schedules, managing their resources in areas such as teaching-learning materials, hiring teachers, etc.). I. Decentralization and School-Based The community participation which is meant to make SBM Management succeed is usually in the form of a school committee, composed of, at least, parents, teachers, and community members and Experience from many years of educational reform has often charged with opening the school to the gaze, support, shown that many system-wide efforts, largely planned and and oversight of the community; making it a more transparent, implemented from the top of the system, often leave the core welcoming place engaged with and in the community; and processes of teaching and learning virtually unchanged. For making it feel accountable to the community for the quality genuine reform to occur at the school and classroom level, of education it provides. In many countries around the world, schools need frequent and consistent support. But central SBM has shown positive results in both enhancing parental ministries and even sub-national education offices often and community interest in education and reducing grade cannot adequately meet this need, especially given the fact repetition and failure rates and improving teacher attendance that each school is different, operating in a unique context and (World Bank 2009). with unique development potential. The process of decentralization is meant to support this reform II. School Committees in Indonesia process. In the best of circumstances, it can: In one form or another, such school committees have long bring change processes closer to where decisions make a been present in Indonesia, originally as largely fund-raising real difference ­ the classroom and the school parent-teacher committees (BP3). But after the 2002 Ministerial encourage local innovation by developing a greater sense Decree on School Committees, the mandate of these bodies of efficacy and professional commitment in teachers and was expanded to include: principals accommodating aspirations of the community in regard both administrative and professional control of the school; to the school's operational policies and education this position has been strengthened by the provision of BOS programs (e.g., supporting active teaching-learning and funds which has made less important the school committee's preparing teaching aids) earlier (and valued) role in raising money for school expenses encouraging a larger role for the community in education (while, in theory, strengthening its role in the budgeting and (e.g., participation in grade-specific parent groups or oversight of BOS funds). paguyuban kelas; the construction of facilities such as fences, toilets, libraries, and computer laboratories; the In addition, new committee members are often either less provision of school meals and clean water; and serving well-educated and less experienced than the school staff or as resource persons on local content ) are hand-picked by the principal; in both cases, committees end up being dominated by the school. Cultural reluctance facilitating the management of education and the to confront authority figures, challenge hierarchies, and school's resources in a more transparent, efficient, and enter into debates and disputes only adds to the difficulty of accountable manner . creating more empowered school committees and therefore more effective school-based management. The Decree requires the school committee (of at least nine people) to include representatives from parents, community leaders, education professionals, the private sector, teachers, III. Challenges and Achievements of community-based organizations, and village officials. SBM in Indonesia With the introduction of sizeable block grants (BOS) from the Recent studies of community participation and SBM in central government to schools in order to reduce fees and Indonesia (Bjork 2009, Pradhan et al 2011, and Chen et al, in promote stronger quality assurance processes through school draft) reveal mixed experiences with SBM, especially with self-evaluations and development plans, it was envisioned that school committees, in Indonesia. The challenges are many. the new school committees would gain an expanded role in In some cases, school committees are seen as being mere school budgeting, planning, and monitoring ­ in other words, replacements for the BP3 with their principal function being in more professional aspects of the school's development and fund-raising ­ a job difficult to do given the constraints on fund- therefore in its accountability to the community it serves. raising imposed by the BOS process. Also, many parents receive little information from the school and have low awareness concerning their potential role in ensuring its accountability to the community. Officially, committee functions are largely concerned with community relations, school facilities, and other administrative areas, and it is therefore difficult for committees to influence more substantive areas such as local curriculum content and teacher management. And principals still largely see their accountability upward to the district rather than outward to the community. Most importantly, perhaps, the roles of the principal, the school committee, the Distric Education Officer (Dinas Pendidikan), the Education Board (Dewan Pendidikan), and parents in the SBM process have not been clearly articulated by MONE, in either national guidelines or documents such as the BOS Photo by Mahargianto Wardoyo implementation manual. All of these reasons make it difficult for school committees to feel empowered to take a stronger These expectations, however, have not been easy to meet role in SBM. In one study, only about 1/3 of the principals in the Indonesian context. Traditionally, schools, although and dinas staff interviewed said that parents and committees in communities, have often not been of communities, their exerted pressure on them in regard to school improvement. teachers and principal from outside, their curricula and texts standardized by the central government, their language But Bjork's qualitative study of community participation of instruction not that of the home. Principals are linked (2009) and other recent evidence suggest that SBM and the to the central bureaucracy and report officially ­ and are school committees which support it are having an increasingly therefore accountable ­ to the district office (rather than to important impact on educational provision and quality. Bjork the school committee or the larger community ) and have found that where conditions were favourable for school 2 committees (e.g., elected in a democratic process, with IV. Recommendations for the Further members representing different community groups, and led by a chair with at least senior secondary education), there were Development of SBM many positive results: Recent studies have indicated various ways in which the Most parents knew about the committee and the names government can assist in strengthening school committees of its chairperson and some of its members and therefore SBM in Indonesia. These should be endorsed and articulated in a MONE policy regarding school committees The committee met more often than the former BP3 and and SBM ­ and also, where relevant, in future editions of the also met parents and teachers more regularly, serving as BOS manual ­ and could include the following: a multi-dimensional channel between the community and the school where parents could share ideas and ask To determine school committee membership: questions. In the best of cases, the committee had access to school School committee members should be selected through personnel and inputs into school planning, budgeting, democratic elections monitored by neutral facilitators. and decision-making and could help raise funds to Based on characteristics of an effective committee further enhance school quality (e.g., support after- member generated by the community itself, a list of school programmes, improve school facilities, hire extra candidates, including under-represented groups such temporary staff ) as women and illiterate citizens, should be developed. Committee members should be elected from this list. School committees which had higher than average status (Principals and standing committee heads should not be (e.g., because they were democratically elected and were involved in these elections.) seen as being representative of the community and/or because their chairperson was experienced and well- Guidelines should ensure that elections lead to regular educated) also encouraged higher teacher attendance changes in school committee membership (e.g., an and greater teacher time spent on activities such as election must produce at least one new member or the lesson preparation and student evaluation election will be invalid). One or more of these variables ­ greater spending on student activities, more temporary staff, and higher teacher attendance ­ was shown to have a significant effect on raising student scores in Indonesian and mathematics. The pilot project that tested four methods of empowering committees and promoting school-level accountability (Bjork 2009 and Pradhan et al 2011) demonstrated that selected interventions can strengthen committees to more successfully fulfill their objectives. These interventions, implemented by neutral, third-party facilitators, included block grants transferred directly to school committees, training for its members, the democratic election of members, and the Photo by Gedsiri Suhartono establishment of linkages between the committee and the local Village Council. Impacts were mixed, but some To strengthen school committee members: treatments showed positive results in regard to both SBM and student outcomes. The current framework for school committee training (both in general and in manuals such as that for BOS Grants were especially important, providing resources which implementation) should be revised so that material will the committee could actually plan for and use. Training be more accessible and relevant to participants and in a helped to some extent (but would have been more useful if it language reflecting the background of school committee had been more directly relevant to the committee's context). members; i.e., educational jargon replaced with language Adding visits to schools with well-functioning school that non-educators can understand committees made the training more useful. Democratic Such training should be implemented using a "whole elections were especially important, showing correlations school" approach with the committee, the principal, with increased parental supervision of student work at home and the teachers receiving the same basic information and teacher time on task. 3 and capacity building; additional training for specific The sharing of ideas among committees should be committee functions (e.g. bookkeeping, proposal institutionalized; e.g., the involvement of existing writing) should also be provided (and effective) school committees in the training and Given that the principal is the school's key change mentoring of new committees through helping to plan agent and that his/her leadership is instrumental in the workshops, organize site visits, and facilitate cross-school implementation of SBM, his/her capacity to activate and committee brainstorming. This could be structured motivate the school committee is essential around a school cluster (gugus) to encourage greater Local experts ­ people who have served on successful collaboration among committees in the same cluster committees and respected retired teachers ­ should School committee meetings should be organized to be recruited to revise training documents and lead the respect the parents' outside obligations--especially in training workshops economically challenged communities ­ and scheduled The amount of workshop time devoted to information at times that have the greatest potential to attract large dissemination should be limited to one day with the rest audiences of the time used for study trips to other committees in Although principals need to be encouraged to support the area. and help build the capacity of their school's committee, current regulations prohibiting them from serving as heads of the committee should be universally implemented. An individual not involved in school administration needs to oversee the committee; this also reduces the potential for corruption if the principal's authority is balanced by the presence of a leader not employed by the school The roles of all parties related to the school committee (principals, members, facilitators) in regards to decision- making and the monitoring of block grants should be clearly articulated. To finance school committees: Photo by M. Wildan Block grant funds need to be transferred at the beginning of each funding cycle so that school committees can To strengthen school committee functioning and enhance develop long-range plans based on available funds SBM: Outstanding school committees should be offered Complementary approaches to strengthening school block grants to further develop their school. The District committees (e.g., combinations of elections, training, Education Offices could then disseminate good practices and grants) should be developed in regard to this process for use in their districts. Ongoing support, training, and mentoring should be provided to committees to ensure that guidance is Recommendations such as these should form the basis for available to them when needed (such as during conflicts more detailed and standardized guidelines in regard to the with principals) establishment and development of school committees. Those Strengthening linkages between the committee and concerning the development and implementation of school local government is an important way of generating budgets, especially decisions concerning the planning for and community leadership support for education; this proved use of BOS funds, should also become an integral part of the especially useful when combined with democratic BOS implementation manual and training materials. elections About BEC-TF The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the European Commission have provided grants for the Basic Education Capacity Trust Fund (BEC-TF) with the purpose of supporting the Government of Indonesia in improving the delivery of decentralized basic education. Managed by the World Bank, the BEC-TF supports analytical work and thematic dialog in education between the Government and development partners at the national level. At local government level, it supports capacity development and strengthening of systems for planning, budgeting, financial and information management in the education sector. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Indonesia, the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, or the European Commission. Human Development Sector, World Bank Office Jakarta Indonesia Stock Exchange Building Tower 2, 12th Floor Jl. Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 52 ­ 53 Phone: (021) 5299 3000 Fax: (021) 5299 3111 Website: www.worldbank.org/id/education