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Improving Education in Indonesia

     With the support of their parents and communities, children in selected schools in Java, Indonesia, learn by doing what children do best: being active. Instead of spending long hours taking notes and memorizing facts, these elementary and junior high students collaborate in groups to conduct experiments, create art, and write stories.

Community volunteers build a library for the school in Pati Kidul. [PHOTO: Stuart Weston]

     Ensuring effective learning is the ultimate goal of the Managing Basic Education (MBE) project. Through this project, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), RTI helps the Indonesian government improve the country's basic educational services and involves local stakeholders--parents, teachers, community organizations, and governments--in planning, managing, and delivering basic education.
     "We currently work with 100 schools--20 schools in each of the project's five districts in Java," says RTI's Stuart Weston, Chief of Party. "Soon we will begin work in five more districts. Our aim is to create an efficient model for providing higher-quality education that can be replicated throughout Indonesia." Conventional, religious, public, and private schools are included in the MBE program.
     RTI is cooperating with agencies including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and AusAID (the Australian aid agency), which are developing similar initiatives in other districts in Indonesia.
     The RTI team helps district officials collect and analyze data that map school locations and resources. Officials use this information to develop equitable funding plans, provide facilities, and distribute teachers. In Batang, Central Java, for example, plans are to merge eight primary schools into four schools, resolving principal and teacher shortages.
     At the local level, RTI provides training to implement an active approach to teaching and learning, increase community participation, and improve school management.

Active Learning

     RTI trains teachers in active learning principles and techniques and provides in-class mentoring for Indonesia's educational program, Active, Creative, Joyful, and Effective Learning.
     "Active learning encourages teachers to reduce the time they spend as lecturers and instead act as facilitators to develop students' creative and analytical thinking," Weston says. "Children are encouraged to write in their own words, and they work in groups to solve problems."

A sixth-grade teacher and a Managing Basic Education program trainer observe children as they discuss a social studies lesson in an East Java school. [PHOTO: Munadi]

     Teachers engage children with innovative activities. In one exercise, children at Plosno No. 1 Primary School in Pacitan, East Java, measured their pulses before and after running in place to help them learn how their bodies function. Then, they compared data and wrote reports.
     Students in Banyuwangi, East Java, participate in a "morning menu" that reinforces learning and encourages analytical thinking. At the end of a school day, students create questions and provide answers based on the material covered during the day. The next morning, they answer questions on the menu. In Sempu, Batang Central Java, teachers broadcast evening radio programs to guide children through homework assignments. Soon students will take part in these broadcasts.
     Simple changes also foster active learning. Teachers increase student interaction through group seating arrangements, and they display students' work--such as reports of experiments and site visits, poetry, and book reviews--on school walls.

Community Participation

     In Indonesia, successful educational outcomes require community participation, and RTI helps schools develop democratic partnerships with their communities. School committees, recently introduced with RTI's assistance, consist of parents, community members, and teachers, and are often chosen at public meetings. "We urge principals to involve their school committees in planning and implementing activities to improve school financing, facilities, and education," says Weston.
     For instance, in Banyuwangi, East Java, the Pengajaran No. 4 Primary School committee is mediating efforts to transform a local military hall into a school facility. In other districts, parents provide display boards to support active learning, paint classrooms, install fans, and design teaching aids.

Local School Management

     RTI trains principals, teachers, and school committees to create autonomous development plans that address local educational goals, such as equitable funding based on the number of students in a school. RTI also encourages schools to display their budgets to inform the community of all funding sources and expenditures.
     Parents generally support local school management and often initiate changes. In Batu, East Java, government officials and community members visited Probolinggo, an MBE district, and then formed parent groups to implement active learning methods. Probolinggo, which receives assistance from both RTI and UNICEF, has disseminated these methods to over 200 of its schools.

More information: Stuart Weston,
e-mail sweston@rti.org
http://www.mbeproject.net

Where in the World is RTI is a bimonthly publication of RTI's International Development Group (IDG). This publication is intended to inform clients and partner organizations about RTI's global activities and research areas. RTI is dedicated to improving the human condition in developing and emerging countries. RTI staff have conducted international project work for over 25 years in 120 countries around the world. We offer a broad range of policy support, applied research and analysis, and other technical expertise in strategic planning, institutional development, and training. Our expertise is multisectoral and spans the fields of education, health, environment and natural resources, governance, finance, and information and communication technology.