IMPROVING TEACHING, LEARNING AND EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA The World Bank works to improve teaching and learning in Indonesia through the Improving Dimensions of Teaching, https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/indonesia/brief/improving-teaching-and-learning-in-indonesia Education Management, and Learning Environment (ID-TEMAN) program, financed by the Australian Government and World Bank funds. The program aims to support Indonesia to improve learning outcomes through better policy, operations and implementation. Started in 2016, it builds on research and analytical work conducted by the World Bank in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of January 2019 Education and Culture over the last decade. Background Over the past 15 years, Indonesia has implemented major policy reforms to improve education. These include a constitutional mandate to allocate 20 percent of the national budget to education, decentralizing some functions of the education sector to the district and school level, and implementing the 2005 Teacher Law. The government has also increased resources to schools with the School Operational Assistance Grant (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah) Program and supported parents enrolling their children in schools through the Smart Indonesia Program (Program Indonesia Pintar). Through these reforms, Indonesia’s education expenditures have increased significantly. By 2015, the national budget for education was greater than any other sector, approximately meeting the 20 percent target of total government expenditure. However, since the national budget is 15 percent of GDP, this education expenditure is only 3 percent of GDP, one of the lowest in the region. While the reach of Indonesia’s education system has increased, major implementation challenges persist. Between 2001 and 2017, enrolment increased by 23 percent, or 10 million students, accompanied by only a modest increase in quality. The country’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores rose during this period, but the 2015 results indicated that 55 percent of 15-year old students are functionally illiterate. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/305361528210283009/pdf/126891-WP-PUBLIC-on-6-5-18.pdf To ensure all children have access to quality education, Indonesia will need to take action to improve teaching and learning environments, school management, and coordination across levels of government. As noted in the World Development Report 2018, improving education will help equip http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018 children with the skills they need for the changing job market, reduce poverty, improve health outcomes, boost economic growth and promote stability. About ID-TEMAN The ID-TEMAN program supports the Indonesian Government to improve governance, autonomy, and accountability of education actors at school, local, and central government levels. The program’s support to the Indonesian Government focuses on two key areas: • Effective teaching and learning processes, focusing on teacher competencies. This includes analyzing and strengthening professional preparatory programs for pre-service teachers, improving continuous professional development for in-service teachers, reviewing and informing the implementation of Indonesia’s Teacher Law and examining student learning profiles. • Improving the delivery of education, including school management, financial transfers and teacher deployment. This support includes reforming the current school budgeting system and performance-based school operational grants; an analysis of teacher deployment, a sub-national public expenditure review, and technical assistance on demand. Program Highlights Building Capacity of Math and Science Teachers To equip children with the skills they need to thrive in today’s job market, education systems should foster critical thinking and collaborative skills, and develop values associated with curiosity, mindfulness and resilience (OECD). Such skills can be developed through core subjects such as mathematics, science, and language. ID-TEMAN supported the Ministry of Education and Culture on improving training modules for the continuous professional development of science and math teachers. These modules focused on Spatial Reasoning (SR) and Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) techniques and are being used by select teacher training units. Over 1,200 science teachers have benefitted from the training on IBL, and the Ministry is scaling this up to approximately 1,600 more. In addition, the IBL modules have now been made available online for teachers from all 34 provinces in Indonesia. This is expected to improve teacher classroom practices and student learning. Recommending Actions to Strengthen Pre-Service Teacher Training ID-TEMAN conducted a situational analysis of the current pre-service teacher training or Pendidikan Profesi Guru PPG (Pendidikan Guru) and presented recommendations to the Ministry of Research Technology and Higher Education. The Ministry refined its pre-service teacher education manual, which is being used to strengthen teacher professional education in over 45 teacher training institutes or Lembaga Pendidikan Tenaga Keguruan (LPTKs). Identifying Challenges and Good Practices for Allocating Teachers to Schools Teachers tend to be allocated to schools based on teacher preferences rather than the needs of students and schools. ID-TEMAN analyzed policies related to teacher allocation and identified challenges, as well as a number of teacher distribution good practices from Semarang city, Gorontalo district, and East Jakarta city. These ‘positive deviants’ were shared with the government, and the Ministry of Education and Culture is disseminating these practices to other districts. Reforming School Budgeting and Planning Processes While the flow of resources to schools has increased, there is little guidance on how to use them most effectively. Many schools continue to lack the capacity to develop plans and budgets to use these resources to achieve the National Service Standards and Minimum Service Standards. ID-TEMAN worked with the Ministry of Education and Culture on reforming the school annual budget plan and piloting an electronic performance-based school planning and budgeting system (e-RKAS e-RKAS – – Rencana Kegiatan dan Anggaran Sekolah) Sekolah to improve the ease of use for schools. The system also provides increased transparency across levels of government – local, provincial and central – to monitor the school planning and budgeting process. This approach was first developed in Surabaya through the self-initiative of the local education office and in DKI Jakarta with the support of the World Bank. After a pilot in 125 schools, the Director General of Basic and Secondary Education (DGBSE) of the Ministry of Education and Culture expressed interest in using the system nationally. As many schools do not have internet connectivity, the DGBSE team developed a partly online e-RKAS, in which schools can input information offline, and then upload to the server when connectivity is available. The government is providing training on the new tool to all districts in 2019. ID-TEMAN is in parallel, working with the Ministry of Religious Affairs to pilot a madrasahs. similar system in 60 madrassahs. Incentivizing Improved Performance in Schools Schools currently receive operational grants based on the number of students enrolled. ID-TEMAN assisted the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Culture and Education to develop a formula for school operational assistance grants based on performance called BOS Kinerja. The ministries are using this formula to develop a performance-based program. The program aims to encourage schools to improve their performance by providing additional funds to schools with the greatest improvements in performance. The new policy was announced in the Nota Keuangan of August 2018 and will be implemented in 2019. Supporting Improvements in Religious Education While students under the Ministry of Religious Affairs make up 15 percent of the overall Indonesian education system, they tend to be under-regulated and supported, particularly private madrasahs madrasah which make up the more than 90 percent of the system. ID-TEMAN is working with the Ministry on improving education for all religious education institutions (Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Kong Hu Cu) that follow the national curriculum, through technical support on data management, education financing, teacher recruiting, and developing an online budgeting and management system similar to the e-RKAS. As a part of this engagement, ID-TEMAN is collaborating with the Ministry on the Service Delivery Indicators study, which assesses the quality of service delivery in primary education. The study, which covers 300 madrasahs madrassah and religious schools, includes interviews with school management and parents, observing teaching practices in the classroom, and conducting learning assessments for students. Contributing to Indonesia’s Medium Term Strategic Planning ID-TEMAN collaborated with the Technical Assistance for Education System Strengthening (TASS), the Asian Development Bank and others to support BAPPENAS (the National Development Planning Agency) with developing an Education Sector Review. The ID-TEMAN team led on analysis around education expenditures, teacher policies and education system governance and provided recommendations which inform the Middle JangkaMenengah Pembangunan Jangka Term National Strategic Planning or RPJMN (Rencana Pembangunan Menengah Nasional ) year 2020 to 2024. Testing Pay-for-performance to Improve Teacher Attendance and Performance ID-TEMAN also collaborated with the Local Solutions to Poverty team at the World Bank to https://localsolutionstopoverty.org/ expand the Kiat Guru pilot in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Culture. The http://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2017/12/22/improving-education-quality-in-indonesia-poor-rural-and-remote-areas project tested pay-for-performance mechanisms for teachers in rural areas of Indonesia to improve teachers’ presence, performance, and student learning outcomes. It is now poised for expansion in urban areas. Learn more : www.worldbank.org/en/country/indonesia/brief/improving-teaching-and-learning-in-indonesia www.worldbank.org/en/country/indonesia/brief/improving-teaching-and-learning-in-indonesia