EDUCATION KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN NASIONAL UPDATE 57781 Supporting the BOS Program Findings from the BOS-KITA Regional Independent Monitoring Team Starting in 2009, a team of 14 regional in- rollment figures. Transparency is increasing, dependent monitors (RIM) has visited more and schools are now more frequently sharing ISSUE 1 than 2,000 schools across 73 districts and their budgets with the school community. 33 provinces in Indonesia to check how the NOVEMBER 2010 BOS program is working. Fielded by the World The 2011 series of training for schools and Bank under the BOS-KITA project and funded school committees needs to emphasize the by a grant from the Royal Netherlands Go- role of school committees in monitoring fund vernment, this team has brought new data use. (See page 3 for more information on BOS Inside This Issue: and insights to inform BOS program manage- training 2011). ment and the government. Some key findings Findings from the BOS- were published in national newspapers in Some local governments are taking the ini- KITA Regional Independent August 2010, when the Minister of National tiative to improve the BOS program by: Monitoring Team Education shared them at a press conference. · working with local media to promote the Stories from the Field: The independent monitors found that 97% BOS program; Getting to Remote Schools of BOS funds are used in accordance with · adding local BOS funds to the national the BOS manual, though close to 30% of BOS funds to achieve Minimum Service Stan- What is BOS? funding is still being used for teacher hono- dards; and raria. The majority of schools receive the cor- · involving school supervisors in BOS pro- Finding Out How People rect amount of BOS funds based on school en- gram monitoring at school level. Learn about the BOS Program Stories from the Field: Getting to Remote Schools Getting Ready for BOS Training 2011 In addition to capturing statistics about how the BOS program is working, the regional in- TRIMS: Tool for Reporting dependent monitors also bring back stories and Information of their struggles to reach remote schools. Management Schools Only three schools were just impossible for them to get to in the first two rounds of National Information monitoring, based on the fact that one vil- Campaign Starts lage was in conflict at the time of the visit, and two schools required a very long hike Good Practices in Managing over mountains. Apart from that, the RIMs BOS at School Level got around by plane, bus, ferry, boat, jeep and train, as well as walking the last miles to Improving School Planning many schools. in Wakatobi, visiting schools by boat in the and Budgeting stormy Banda sea. Photographs taken by the This photo shows RIM team members Khairul- RIM team have been exhibited at the Indo- Improving Monitoring and lah, Marbawi and Amalia, on their way from nesian Teachers Congress in Jakarta in May Public Information Service Bau-Bau to Wangi-Wangi and nearby islands 2010. What is BOS? · It is the Indonesian Ministry of National · The total value of the program is ap- Education's flagship school grant pro- proximately Rp 16 trillion per year. gram, and it is supported by the World Bank's BOS-KITA project. · BOS stands for Bantuan Operational Sekolah, or School Operations Fund. · Schools across the country receive quar- terly grants for operational expenses, · BOS-KITA stands for BOS ­ Knowledge based on the number of students in the Improvement for Transparency and Ac- school. countability. Improving School Planning and Budgeting Schools are now responsible for managing large Key points to be included in the training course are: amounts of money under the BOS program, and they school budget administration and flow of funds; also have other funding sources, all of which need to pa-rent and community participation; taxation is- be accounted for. The school committee plays a key sues; basic book keeping and asset management; role in monitoring this, working with the school prin- reporting and audit preparedness. cipal and the treasurer. Along with three other training modules, the BOS BOS training 2011 will emphasize this role, and will training materials were discussed with potential introduce simple approaches to improving school users in Yogyakarta in August 2010. These training based management through training in planning and materials have been refined and published for the budgeting, focusing on principles of transparency training of trainers conducted in October and No- and accountability. vember. "The Ministry Getting Ready for BOS Training 2011 of National The Ministry of National Education's BOS manage- are working alongside the Asian Develpment Bank Education's ment team is rallying development partners to sup- ADB under the EU-funded Basic Education Sector Ca- BOS training port the national BOS training program for 2011. It is critical to the success of the BOS program that all pacity Support Program, with AusAID and USAID to help MONE design and implement an improved train- 2011 will be stakeholders understand their roles in monitoring ing based on the 'best of' materials used for vari- the use of BOS funds and supporting school based ous recent education projects. MONE will then run a supported management. Since central budgets have been cut training of trainers program in late 2010 for 1,500 by a group of for BOS training and monitoring, MONE has request- ed support from first the Netherlands for BOS train- trainers from all over Indonesia, then in early 2011 the nationwide rollout will start, aiming to reach development ing 2009, and now AusAID for 2011. more than 250,000 schools including madrasahs. partners." Through the Basic Education Capacity Trust Fund, the The training course will cover school self assessment, planning and budgeting, financial management, and World Bank, the European Union and the Netherlands updates on the BOS program. TRIMS: Tool for Reporting and Information Management by Schools TRIMS is a simple excel based tool to empower schools budgeting, but also forward it to provinces and the to make use of their own data in planning and bud- national level to establish the extent to which Mil- geting. Consolidating all the data that schools get lenium Development Goals (MDGs) and national tar- asked to provide to various sources, TRIMS will allow gets and standards are being met. them to click student and teacher numbers and other key data for immediate translation into pie charts, TRIMS is being piloted in all schools in 6 districts graphs, ratios and percentages. Schools can then prior to nationwide rollout through the BOS training Trying out TRIMS in Probolinggo, July 2010 use the data and forward it to district authorities for program for 250,000 schools starting in 2011. The http://www.dinaspdk-kotaprobolinggo.net aggregation. Districts will use their own aggregation TRIMS tool will be updated based on the experience tool in the same way, and be encouraged not only to of participants in Kota Probolinggo. use the data for their own monitoring, planning and EDUCATION UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2010 ^ BOS Social Marketing and Information Campaign call to action for increased parents' participation and oversight of BOS implementation. National Information Campaign Starts The Indonesian Minister of National Education trillions of rupiah of government funds, meets its launched a nationwide social information campaign targets". He also quoted the findings from a recent to strengthen transparency and accountability in World Bank survey of 720 randomly selected schools, the BOS. Based on support provided by the World which indicate that parents do not have sufficient Bank under its BOS-KITA loan, and with funding from knowledge of the BOS program to be able to moni- Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the tor fund usage effectively, although 86% had heard campaign contains key messages on the importance of the program. of public oversight in the usage of BOS funds by schools, and how parents can support it. According The campaign will use TV, radio, sms and print, and to Minister Mohammad Nuh, "the public should be in- will also promote a new toll free phone number for volved to make sure that the program, which absorbs complaints and feedback: 177 is the new hotline. Good Practice in Managing BOS at School Level SD Negeri Sidanegara 11, Kecamatan Cilacap Tengah, poor students at Rp. 45,000 a month. in the district of Cilacap, is an example of good prac- tice in transparency and accountability. Since 2005, According to the principal of SD Negeri 3 SP C Mensi- the school has kept a special file for BOS, complete ku, in the district of Sintang, West Kalimantan, since with the manual and all the reporting templates. the BOS program started there has been better col- Teachers and the School Committee are consulted on laboration between the principal and the teachers, the use of funds, which are used for school operations who work together to develop the school plan. and to improve the quality of the education provided. At SDN Ujong Patehah, district of Nagan Raya, NAD, Meanwhile in Sinjai Timur in South Sulawesi, the SD BOS funds are used to support extra- curricular activ- Negeri 32 Buakang school principal always makes ities which can help improve education quality, and sure that the BOS funds are managed carefully, never especially since the BOS amount increased in 2009, borrowing and always maintaining a positive balance the school has not needed to ask parents to pay fees What a school notice board should look like: in the bank. This school provides transport funds for for the after school program. SDN Sidanegara 11, Cilacap Finding Out How People Learn about The BOS Program The BOS nationwide social information campaign is "I'm not saying it'll be easy. I welcome the extra hard being complemented by district surveys which will work," says Peter Kainama, staff from Ambon Munici- provide insights into the best ways to increase public pality Education Office, who has realized that there knowledge of the BOS program. are diverse stakeholders to be targeted in dissemi- nating information about BOS. According to Peter, Representatives from four local education offices se- information has only been passed on to teachers and lected to pilot a local BOS Social Marketing and Infor- it has never occurred to him that parents also need to mation Campaign are eager to clarify how BOS funds be informed about BOS. should be used. Recruitment for district campaign coordinators has just been finalized and a two-day The results of the social information campaign study workshop was held to build common understanding will inform future BOS campaigns, using the ap- amongst the campaign team, particularly with local proaches that work most effectively to reach com- education offices, to make sure the key campaign munities. messages are spread. SUPPORTING THE BOS PROGRAM Contacts in the Ministry of National Education Improving Monitoring and Public Information Service Directorate of Primary Education: Free hotline: 0-800-140-1276 The BOS at MONE team has developed an complaint handling services. A 177 hotline Phone: 021-5725632 & 021-5725641 improved monitoring and evaluation frame- has been launched by the Minister, to be ac- Fax: 021-5725635 work for the BOS program, which will simplify cessible through various means of communi- Email: bos@dittksd.go.id management and reporting. This more stan- cation, including text messages (SMS). This dardized system will also facilitate compari- requires better coordination at all levels to Directorate of Junior Secondary son between districts. It has been piloted in make sure that any complaints or comments Education: 3 provinces and 6 districts, and is now being are recorded, processed, and responded to Free hotline: 0-800-140-1299 implemented by central BOS management appropriately and quickly by the right unit. Phone: 021-5725980 (Directorate of Junior Secondary Education) The team has already prepared Standard Op- Fax: and in 2 districts (Kota Prabumulih and Kota erating Procedures to make this clear. 021-57331070 & 021-5725645 Yogjakarta). It is expected that the system Email: bos@dit-plp.go.id will be rolled out to all districts from 2011, All of the new systems improvements have Information and Community when the BOS program decentralizes. been shared with districts and provinces Relations through interactive DVDs with a user friendly The Ministry of National Education now has a one door policy for public information and format, with the expectation that this will lead to a better BOS program for all. Hotline: 177 This brief was prepared by the BOS-KITA team at the World Bank, Indonesia, with the oversight ^ Kicking off the national informa- of the BOS team at the Ministry of National Education, and with support from the following tion campaign: Minister of National programs working with the BOS program: Education, Pak M. Nuh, with Mae Chu Chang (World Bank) and Arnold van The Dutch Education Support Program funds a series of activities working with the BOS pro- der Zanden (Embassy of the Royal gram, including the social information campaign and study, support to monitoring and evalu- Kingdom of the Netherlands). ation including the Regional Independent Monitors, BOS training 2009, and a study on school- based management. The Basic Education Capacity Trust Fund is providing technical assistance for the preparation of BOS training 2011, and is piloting TRIMS with the Ministry of National Education, as part of it support to local level education governance. BOS-KITA (BOS-Knowledge Improvement through Transparency and Accountability) WORLD BANK INDONESIA The World Bank is supporting the BOS program through BOS-KITA (School Operational Assis- Indonesia Stock Exchange tance and Knowledge Improvement for Transparency and Accountability). This project aims Building, Tower 2, 12th floor to improve access to quality education for all children aged 7 to 15 by working to strengthen school committees, increase community participation, improve fiduciary arrangements for Phone: (62) 21 52993000 greater transparency and accountability of the BOS program to consequently better utilize Fax: (62) 21 52993111 current BOS funds. The loan total is $600 million for 2008-10, with additional financing of E-mail: stown@worldbank.org $500 million for 2010-12. KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN NASIONAL