Quality Education For Whom

EDUCATIONAL REALITY

The spirit of education for all is in line with the mandate of Law no. 20 of 2003 which states that "Every citizen has the same right to obtain quality education", but in reality the gap in access to education and the gap in education quality are still challenges that must be faced by Indonesia. The gap in access to education is proven by the low net participation rate, which is influenced by the family's economic capacity. The high school dropout rate, especially during the transition period from junior high school to high school level, is due to the limited number of high schools at the sub-district level, besides that, the burden of education costs that must be borne by poor families will increase as the level of education increases.

The vast archipelagic nation of Indonesia makes gaps in the quality of education unavoidable. The quality of infrastructure, the quality of teachers and the quality of schools as evidenced by the unequal distribution of school accreditation in Indonesia means that the quality of national education is still low. Even though poor people have access to educational services, if the quality is inadequate then the human resource output produced will not meet expectations in competing in the labor market and in the end it will be difficult to get out of the cycle of poverty.

From the perspective of basic services provided by the government to the community, educational services can be contextualized into the interaction of demand-supply factors for educational services. Demand factors include the affordability of education costs and the need for quality education. For poor people, eliminating education fees does not necessarily guarantee their continued schooling because there are other costs that must be paid such as transportation costs, book costs, school uniforms, etc. Apart from that, there is also the value of potential family income when children help out at home. For this reason, the government must be more careful in examining other potential costs arising from the education process. Furthermore, opportunities for access to education must be accompanied by improving the quality of education in order to obtain increased skills to raise the standard of living of poor families. Low quality education is a poverty trap itself.

The government's efforts to advance education in Indonesia are proven by various programs to increase access and quality of education, namely through non-personal financing programs in DAK Education and BOS and Regional BOS funds. Apart from that, it is also supported by personal financing through the Smart Indonesia program and the Family Hope Program. The article 33 research team estimates based on a simulation of the use of BOS funds by schools, the current BOS unit cost is still around 20% less than the national standard. In this simulation, it is assumed that the school uses 15% of BOS funds for teacher salaries and school infrastructure.

.
.

SOME BREAKTHROUGH

The study regarding the gap in poor people's access to quality education was initiated by article 33 Indonesia in providing a contribution to public discussions as an effort to find solutions to the problem of unequal access to education for the poor, especially quality education and encourage more affirmative policy changes for the poor. The implementation of this study also received support from the Bogor City, Malang City and Makassar City Education Services.

There are several breakthroughs suggested by article 33 Indonesia in an effort to equalize the quality of education by improving the quota for poor students through massive policy outreach, accountability in the student admissions process, consideration of the proximity of residence locations and school readiness to accept poor students who are academically lacking in order to reduce gaps between students.

Another breakthrough is the charter school method where government-owned schools are run professionally by the private sector. Generally charter schools are located where the poor are located and are of higher quality than regular state schools with the admission process being carried out through a lottery so that everyone has the same opportunity to enter without any academic history. If a country has strong education funding, it can apply another method, namely entrusted school, which focuses on improving the quality of schools, especially in rural areas, by providing a budget as an incentive for superior schools or teams to support weak schools through an MoU containing details of technical assistance for learning. in improving performance both in terms of management and teaching.

The final breakthrough offered is through the Bundled School Management method where new schools replicate superior schools in the same teaching staff, curriculum design, assessment and training systems or school building programs in developing areas with new accommodation or providing new accommodation for existing schools. Some combination of lessons is also needed in order to use a more flexible and integrated curriculum. This method aims to offer more creative and flexible teaching and learning.

.
.
.
.
.

This module is available in printed form.
For those interested, please contact sekretariat@article33.or.id