Education Development Strategies for Asian Countries in the New Century: Indonesia

Fasli Jalal Ph.D.

Director General for the Improvement of Teacher Quality

                            Ministry of National Education

Indonesia

Introduction

Indonesia is a large country with about 17,000 islands spread over 5,000 kilometers east to west across that separate Asia and Australia. The population of Indonesia is widely dispersed and many of the people are located in remote and isolated areas. The main islands of the Indonesian archipelago are Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and West Irian.

At the end of the 1980s, the population of Indonesia was more than 180 millions with the average annual growth rate for the period from 1985 to 1990 at 2.1 per cent. In 2000,the population of in 2000,the population of Indonesia was more than 200 million. In 2005,it is estimated the size of the population is about 220 million. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world after the Peoples Republic of China, India, and the United States of America. Indonesia’s population of school-age children is also one of the largest in the world, consisting of more than 27 million for senior secondary schools, about 8.5 million for junior secondary schools, and more than 3.5 million for senior secondary schools.

  The country is divided into 32 provinces and each province is governed by a governor. There ate more than 300 different languages and ethnic groups in the country. The national language is ‘Bahasa Indonesia’ or Indonesian language and it is the medium of instruction in schools from primary up to higher education. In several areas, local languages are also used as the medium of instruction in the first two years of primary education.

  The geographical condition of the Indonesian archipelago makes it very difficult for the central government to run and manage the schools. The nation’s geography and the way the population is distributed across the islands have affected the efficiency of administering the centralized system of schools from the capital city of Jakarta locates on Java island.

  The Government of Indonesia made political commitments for achieving basic education for all. In this broader context, national level reflections were engaged for developing a new vision of education, as part of the reform in Indonesia, which emphasize the implementation of the principles of democracy, autonomy, decentralization, and public accountability. The reforms in education system have given prominence to enhance its performance in the framework of even distribution of educational opportunities. This reform process has fundamental impact on national education system and its mission to meet various challenges in the present day world.

Guided by the mission of education and educational strategies, the Republic of Indonesia enacted a new Law on National Education System in July 2003,resulting from national wide consultation. The Law has its foundations in the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia, Article 31, Section (1), of which states that each and every citizen shall have the fundamental right to education. The Law creates a legal framework for the major educational goal, policies and plans. The key targets include the expansion and equity, the improvement of quality and relevance, and the implementation of autonomy in higher education. The Law seeks to open access to education at all levels and all forms-formal, non-formal, as well as informal-for all the citizens of Indonesia. Its main thrust is to make education relevant to societal needs; to develop further community-based education; and to enhance participation by community in supporting basic education. It provides rights and obligations of citizens, parents, community, and Government.

The Law sets forth aims and functions of education, and national standards and the principles of the education system. It applies to all educational institutions that exist or may be created in the Republic of Indonesia. Its underlying philosophy is that education is a national movement in order that different stakeholders participate in the development of education as a life-long process. As such, the Law recognizes active partnership with local government and other local authorities in the process of education decentralization.

One of the main purposes of the Law is to inculcate in young minds the respect for human rights, for cultural pluralism and learning to live together, promote morals and character building as well as unity in diversity (BhinnekaTunggal Eka) in the spirit of brotherhood and solidarity.

The Government recognizes the importance of education as an investment in human capital formation that lays the foundation for future economic growth and development in Indonesia. In that spirit, the Law provides, in compliance with constitutional amendment of 2002 that 20 percent national budget shall be allocated for education. The Government has thus taken a major decision. Keeping in mind that due to the economic crisis, the resources available for the implementation of universal basic education are limited, the role of the community and parents for the completion of 9-years basic education program is becoming critically important.

The education development strategies developed by Indonesia in the new centuries is based on this law the vision developed for future Indonesia. The Ministry’s long term vision is that all Indonesia’s children and young people will have equal opportunity to quality education at all levels, irrespective of economic status, gender, geography, ethnicity and physical disability consistent with the Government’s a time when graduates form all its institutions will meet the highest international and regional standards and will be competitive in global and regional job markets and be the impetus for broad-based, political, social and economic development in Indonesia.

The long-term mission of the Ministry is to ensure that there are no barriers to accessing education opportunities and that the very highest standards of education and training are assured. Another part of the Ministry’s mission is to ensure that progression through the system is based on merit. Another mission is to inform parents, students and other stakeholders of the opportunities available, the basis for accessing these opportunities and sharing responsibility for optimising these opportunities. Part of this mission is that the Ministry will provide a teaching and learning environment that promotes a culture of excellence and strengthens the confidence of Government, parents, children and other stakeholders in the value of education and training provided.

The Ministry recognizes that it cannot achieve to the alone and sees its mission to promote and implement a more inclusive approach to the governance and resource mobilization for education. In the context of broader decentralization reforms, the Ministry will adopt s stronger enabling role in providing local governments with clearly set standards, guidelines on optimum strategic choices and financing mechanisms, whilst recognizing the decision making powers of local governments and district education managers.

  In order to do this, the Ministry will accord the highest priority to setting and monitoring education and training standards and informing the public of the standards of both public and private institutions. As part of implementing its mission, the Ministry affirms its commitment to exercise its authority and responsibilities under the new education legislation and assumes full responsibility for implementing any associated regulations and administrative guidelines.

Education Policy Framework

  The Ministry of National Education of Indonesia has managed to formulate the Education Policy Framework that can be used for education development strategies in the new centuries. Following is the Education is the Education Policy Framework for 2005-2009.

Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD): Formal &Non-formal

The overall policy is for Government to enable expansion of the private sector, alongside Government/community partnership for ECCD expansion in underserved areas, especially those districts with prevalence of late primary school enrolment. The main targets up to 2009 are:

  *Maintenance of private ECCD provision through public information/advocacy campaigns. Target: Enrolment of 1.83million, with increased share for 5-6 year olds, by 2009.

  *Expansion of community based, grant aided ECCD, including play group and home based system. Target: Enrolment of 0.44 million by 2009.

  *Expansion of ECCD parent awareness raising program, including guidelines and information. Target: Nationwide campaign from 2006.

  The overall goal will be to shift ECCD provision from urban childcare approaches towards broader school readiness and social/physical development programs.

Basic Education: Formal &Non-formal

In order to secure the basic education to all Indonesian students, the Ministry of National Education’s revised policies and target are as follows:

  *Increased enrolment of students in primary grades 1-6 and in junior secondary grades 1-3.Targetl: Net enrolment rates of 100% for primary and 100%for junior secondary education, by2009.

  *Increased net intake of 7 year olds into grade 1,alongside regulation of under-age enrolment in grade 1.Taeget: Net intake rate of 100% and no ender-age enrolment, by 2009.

  *Improved survival rates across grades1-6 and grades 7-9 for new and current age cohorts. Target: 100%for primary and 100% for junior secondary, by 2009.

  *Raising progression rates in grades 1-6 and transition rates from grade 6 to junior secondary grade 1.Target: 100%, with gender equity, by 2009.

  The adjusted policies and targets for out-of-school and non formal education will focus on increasing re-entry into upper primary and junior secondary grades. The main targets, up to 2009, will be:

  *Increased re-entry programs into mainstream schooling at primary grades 3-6 and junior secondary grades 1-3.Target: 0.5 million per annum for primary grades 3-6 and 0.5 million per annum for junior secondary grades 1-3,form 2005 with 80% from poor families.

  *Expanded adult literacy programs, including public/NGO/community partnership. Target: 660,000 per annum from 2005,rising to around 1.3 million per annum by 2009,with 60%females and 60%from poor families.

  The overall approach will be to increasingly harmonize formal and non-formal systems through re-entry, in order to improve efficiency in use of staff and facilities, including using village schools as community lifelong learning centers.

  Senior secondary and technical &Vocational Education

  The overall policy will be to increasingly harmonize and integrate general and technical streams in senior secondary education in order to increase parental and student choice, within consolidated facilities where appropriate. A second policy will be to increase the responsiveness of institutions to national and local labor market requirements through expanded work place based and work experience programs. Key policies and targets include:

  *Increased enrolment in senior secondary grades1-3, including through increased transition from junior secondary. Target: total enrolment around 8.6million, 2009, including 57% in general senior secondary, NER of 57%and increased share of female enrolment in TVET, by 2009.

  *Expansion of formal and non-formal work based and institution based apprenticeship and work experience programs. Target: minimum 50% of senior grade 3 students, by 2009.

  *Phased introduction of consolidated community college system, including senior secondary, TVET, teacher education and part-time higher education provision. Target: action plan in 2006 for under-served districts.

  Government /MONE policy will be to enable and facilitate a strongly demand-side approach to TVET/youth skills training through a strong public/private partnership. Government/MONE policy will be to enable consolidation and extension of existing providers and Government.

Higher Education and Teacher Education

  The overall policy objective in higher education is to enable expanded provision of quality higher education in response to national priorities, employment needs, and other market demands and to enable a stronger public/private partnership in higher education. A related policy will be to enable increased operational autonomy of higher education institutions in order to both expand provision and increase market responsiveness. Another policy will be to expand teacher upgrading program through distance learning initiatives offered by public, private and open universities. The main targets by 2009 are:

  *Increased overall enrolment in full-time higher education. Target: 4.5 million with 68% of enrolment in private institutions and increased gender equity, by 2009.

  *Phased expansion of district of based teacher education programs, using distance learning and Open University modalities. Target: 150,000 teachers retrained per annum from 2005 onwards.

  *Phased expansion of Open University and other distance learning programs. Target: 500,000 students enrolled by 2009.

  *Improved equity in access to higher education from all districts, through increased numbers of qualified senior secondary school graduates. Target: 30% of higher education students form outside urban areas by 2009.

  *Expansion of science, technology and mathematics programs in all public and private HE institutions. Target: 50% of enrolment at various levels with 30% females, by 2009.

  *Increased numbers of public H.E. Institutions achieve autonomous status, with appropriate governance and management systems. Target: 33 autonomous institutions by 2009.

  In order to stimulate demand create a climate of public confidence in higher education provision, MONE will enable strengthening of information exchange systems with parents, students, employers, and other marker forces.

Policy Priorities and Targets: Performance Management, Quality Assurance and Governance

Strengthening Governance, Legislative and Regulatory Framework

  The Ministry’s long-term policy priority is to enable greater delegation of authority and responsibilities to provincial, district, community and school level. MONE policy is that central directorates and departments will increasingly adopt an enabling role in policy and strategy implementation and related performance monitoring. The main targets by 2009 are:

  *Enabling passage of any new education legislation or regulations, including associated with defined levels of authority and responsibility. Target: annual action plan defining additional legislation and regulations with subsequent Parliamentary and Ministerial approval, from 2006 onwards.

  *Drafting of appropriate operational guidelines related to implementation of legislation and regulation, including well defined organizational and individual incentives and sanctions. Target: annual action plan from 2006 onwards.

  *Review and revision of regulations and guidelines related to community/school/district, district/province and province/center governance and accountability arrangements. Target: revision completed by end of 2005.

Enabling Improved Performance Management Systems

  The policy objective will be to strengthen institutional arrangements within the educations sector for improved performance management, greater results orientation and quality assurance. The main targets by 2008 are:

  *Developing new institutional arrangements for province based student performance assessment. Target: Establish new function within provincial education offices for education standards by end 2005 and standard setting in selected by 2007.

  *Introduction of new formal performance agreements and reporting arrangements at every level of the education system, including MONE, provinces, districts and schools with appropriate accountability to local Government and communities. Target: Performance agreement framework agreed in 2005 and implemented 2006 onwards.

  *Introduction of staff performance appraisal systems at every level of the education system, including appropriate reporting procedures. Target: Phased action plan agreed in 2005,with sector wide appraisal systems implemented by 2007.

  *Expanding internal audit operations to cover selected directorates/departments, provincial and district offices and schools. Phased action plan agreed in 2005,with 25%of budget management centers audited by 2007.

  *Introduce annual joint sector performance monitoring systems at all levels, including representation of all appropriate stakeholders, especially National and Local parliament. Target: Action plan and guidelines agreed in 2005,implenentation from 2006 onwards.

  As a demonstration of its commitment to improved transparency and accountability, the Ministry intends to adopt a policy of annual reporting on sector performance to the National Parliament form 2005 onwards.

Policy Priorities and Targets: Sector-Wide Financing

  Ensuring Effective and Equitable Policy Based Education Financing

  The overarching policy goal for education financing is that no Indonesian family or student will be excluded from access to education or training opportunities through an inability to pay formal or informal charges or contributions. An associated goal is to put in place fair and equitable financing mechanisms taking account of affordability by Government, parents and other potential contributors.

  As part of strengthening broader governance and accountability systems for education in Indonesia, another objective is to ensure that sufficient information is made available to all contributors to education costs in order that they can make effective judgments on the value of current and future investments in the sector. An early priority will be to strengthen such systems at senior secondary and higher education levels, where parental contributions are greatest.

  The medium term policy priority is to continue to advocate for increased overall spending volumes on education. An immediate priority will be to eliminate all contributions in basic education which are the primary cost barrier to equitable access for basic education for the poorest families. An associated financing policy is to maintain the share of public recurrent spending on basic education alongside a reduced share for parents at this level. Maintaining Government basic spending levels will allow for an increased share for operation, non-salary, spending. Current financing projections are show in Tables A-E.

Ensuring Pro-Poor Financing Policies and targets

The main financing policy targets for recurrent spending by 2009 are:

*Increase the volume of Government spending on basic education and maintain overall share. Target: Around 69% share of recurrent spending for basic education.

* Abolition of parental contributions to basic education costs, alongside increased public spending. Target: Abolish all parental contributions from 2005 onwards.

* Adjusted personnel/non-personnel budget shares consistent with implementation of access, quality and governance improvement priorities. Target: Personnel costs share of 51% by 2009.

*Increased transitional recurrent budget support for introduction of a matching grant system under the development budget, alongside additional external assistance using the same mechanism. Target: Introduction of matching grant scheme from 2005 onwards with growing external assistance for education provided as budget support.

*Increased non-Government/private spending share on senior secondary, TVET and higher education, alongside targeted Government scholarships and waivers for the poor. Target: minimum 60% non-Government spending shares by 2009.

The Ministry will exercise its authority to abolish parental contributions for basic education and regulate user charges for post-secondary education. The Ministry will also ensure transparency and accountability of all sources of financial support for education, including external assistance.

Harmonising DAU, DAK and Decon/Donor Financing Strategies

Currently, the MONE development budget and external assistance provides a mixture of development and operational budget support to district and school level activities. The Ministry’s policy is to strengthen the policy linkage between recurrent funding (mainly under DAU) and development spending(under DAK and DIP/external assistance).

As a transitional measure, the Ministry’s policy will be to introduce a matching grant program which will provide policy and strategy linked operational budget support to districts. This grant will be provided against agreed policy/strategy related eligibility criteria and district performance assessments. A sliding scale of matching funds for better and less well off districts will be part of the program. It is also anticipated that districts will be able to use the current provincial equalization fund as part of resource mobilization under the matching grant scheme.

The Ministry’s long term objective is to move towards a discretionary funding system with the DIP being integrated within the DAU/DAK funding mechanism. The matching grant scheme constitutes a transitional mechanism which will allow MONE to annually monitor its impact and ensure effective auditing arrangements. The matching grant approach also may present an opportunity and a mechanism for individual donors to move towards providing policy oriented and program targeted recurrent budget support.

For the facilities program, the Ministry’s policy will be to adopt a demand side approach, with individual districts applying for funding against agreed eligibility criteria. Provincial education facilities screening function will be strengthened, using the province as a channel of applications for final approval by MONE. Facilities development funds will be managed and accounted for by the districts through the provincial office. MONE and provincial education offices will provide guidelines and technical support to selected districts in preparing these applications in order to ensure a level playing field.

The Ministry’s policy for planning and management of capacity development funds, currently extensively funded by external assistance, is to develop processes which allow for better coordination and pooled funding from a number of sources. MONE policy will be to support provinces and districts to setup districts to setup discreet capacity development funds as a channel for support form Government, local revenues and external assistance.