Lessons Learnt from PRIMA Pendidikan? (2)

PRIMA Pendidikan is the first and, so far, only attempt in Indonesia to combine the PSBM model and Lesson Study under the same program. This combination appears ideal: while the PSBM model improves (democratizes) school management, Lesson Study specifically improves the quality of classroom lessons. Lesson Study is one of the activities to be proposed for and financed with the block grant either for TPK (MGMP-based Lesson Study) or for school (school-based Lesson Study). This way, PSBM and Lesson Study mix perfectly to achieve a new, unprecedented dimension of educational development in Indonesia.

After one year of experiment to conduct Lesson Study under PRIMA Pendidikan, preliminary results indicate that this combination can work effectively. Lesson Study makes up the weakness of the PSBM model, that is, difficulty of direct intervention to improve daily lessons. PSBM, on the other hand, effectively supplements Lesson Study by democratizing school management (a necessary condition for successful Lesson Study) and by satisfying a variety of pressing needs that individual schools want to fulfill before caring for quality.

The third cycle (2009/10) of PRIMA Pendidikan will generate further results and attest the hypothesis with quantitative as well as qualitative data.

As many interviews of PRIMA Pendidikan participants attest, PRIMA Pendidikan has succeeded in building mutual trust among people: between government officials and private people; between principal and teachers; between schools and community. Without mutual trust, no progressive change or development can take place in society. How could they achieve this? With accountability and transparency.

PRIMA Pendidikan entrusts a significant amount of funds to all schools and TPKs for their use. In turn, PRIMA Pendidikan requests them to respond to any inquiry (accountability) and disclose all information (transparency). In Indonesia, such a practice was rarely seen before. PRIMA Pendidikan has changed it. By participating in PRIMA Pendidikan, people have accepted accountability and transparency as norms. Once a leader becomes accountable for his or her deeds and make every decision transparent, people will trust him or her. The leader will in turn trust fellow members as well-wishers. Mutual trust will thus grow.

Although simple, the PRIMA Pendidikan procedure still requires some technical work to be done by the schools and TPKs. Primary ones are writing the Activity Proposal, Financial Report and Activity Report. At the beginning, they commonly need advice on appropriate activities to propose and practical assistance to write their proposal and reports. Even Dinas Pendidikan Kabupaten/Kota may need some expert help at various steps of PRIMA Pendidikan procedure.

One reason why PRIMA Pendidikan has succeeded is that it sufficiently provided such technical support to the participants. PRIMA Pendidikan has tried two types of technical support providers: Field Consultants and pengawas. PRIMA Pendidikan experiment shows that the two have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Field Consultant. In the initial stage, the JICA Expert Team for PRIMA Pendidikan hired and assigned two Field Consultants to each kabupaten. Filed Consultants assisted not only schools and TPKs but Dinas Pendidikan as well. They have proved to be excellent facilitators and contributed a great deal to the success of PRIMA Pendidikan. However, Dinas Pendidikan Kabupaten/Kota usually does not have budget to hire such experts as consultants. This is the limitation of the Field Consultant.

Pengawas (school supervisor). A group of pengawas are stationed at each Dinas Kabupaten/Kota and Kandepag (District Office of Ministry of Religious Affairs). Their main tasks are to oversee schools (both administration and pedagogy) and give advice to improve school performance. Most pengawas are ex-school principals with good experiences and credentials. PRIMA Pendidikan has given a new task to pengawas: to support schools and TPKs with PRIMA Pendidikan implementation. This is well justified for two reasons: first, this is an appropriate way to mobilize human resources that are underutilized; second, this is a way to make PRIMA Pendidikan sustainable. However, one limitation with them is that not all pengawas are good facilitators.

It was reported that after decentralization some local governments put priority on construction projects and significantly reduced educational budget to a bare minimum. The “20% goal” adopted by the parliament has been largely neglected. Except for a few “enlightened” local governments, educational budget in many cases has been sacrificed for economic or other purposes. The difficulty is that MONE no longer has authority to enforce the resolution or any budgetary rule upon the local governments.

How to secure educational budget is thus a very serious concern in a number of Kabupaten and Kota. The issue is complicated because it usually involves highly political matters. However, PRIMA Pendidikan experiences suggest that education could become a priority for Bupati (Head of District) / Walikota (Vice Head of District) and local legislators once they come to understand that education pays off in the short term as well as in the long run. How?

1. Exposure and persuasion: A series of socialization and/or observation tours can be very effective to expose local leaders to different perspectives and experiences; persuasion may take time but will work.
2. Healthy competition: Encourage healthy competition among local governments with regard to students’ academic and non-academic achievements.
3. Voices of local stakeholders: Heads of local governments and DPRD (District Assembly) members are all popularly elected and susceptible to voters’ voices; organize education stakeholders (including parents) and make their voices heard by local leaders.