Improving educational planning for junior secondary education in the Indonesian decentralization era

Education was one of the sectors that was being decentralized except 6 sectors ( Defense, Security, Foreign Affair, Justice, Finance, and Religious Affair) that are still under the management of the central government, centralized. During the decentralization of education, the mechanism of education planning has become difficult and complicated. This is due to the complexity of the procedure that the plan has to go through; a long process, starting from the preparation of supporting data until the final stage of deciding the most appropriate programs and activities for the country. Besides, this process has to involve all stakeholders of education, the approval from the parliament must be obtained so that the proposed budget can be funded.

The main objectives of this research are two fold. First, to make better or to improve the education planning mechanism at the Directorate for Development of Junior Secondary Education (DDJSE). Second, through improved planning, to expand the scope of service to the citizens of the country so that every citizen in Indonesia will have an equal access to Junior Secondary Education (JSE) and to improve the quality of JSE in Indonesia. To achieve these research objectives, practitioner research was used as an umbrella of research methodology with action research as the main research method. Data were collected by using data collection methods: questionnaires, observations, interviews, and document analysis from related sources. The research was done from 2004 until 2008.

This research involved all of the staff from the DDJSE, some staff from provincial and district education office, and other stakeholders of education. The involvement of all level of education staffs was aimed to find the most appropriate plan that suitable for all three levels of education offices. Whatever happens in one of the three levels of education offices will affect the other education offices.

During this research, the following actions were conducted as part of the education planning process: creation of current and complete data (EMIS), development of evaluation criteria for effective decentralized education planning, bottom up planning, coordination and synchronization, development of clear division of labour in education planning among the layer of education bureaucracy based on government regulation number 38/2007, capacity building, participation decision making, intensive and regular monitoring and evaluation.

At the end of the research completion, the researcher concluded that effective education planning had significantly increased the access to and the quality of JSE from year to year. The increase in access to JSE is shown by the significant improvement in Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at JSE. The improvement of the quality of JSE is shown by the constant increase in students scores at the National Examination (UN). This research does not claim to be the only reason for the success of the DDJSE, but through this Research by Project there is clear improvement in JSE in Indonesia.

In addition, the research approach, results, and strategies have been very valuable for the DDJSE in improving the access and quality of JSE in Indonesia.