2. SURVEY OF DISTRICT MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATION

Chart 1 shows that in the five districts, education takes up the largest portion of district budgets - APBD - of any sector. In 2003, it ranges between 29.4 % in Batang and 47.7 % in Pati. The actual figures are shown in Table 1: District Financial Profiles.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

Education is a labor intensive sector. Personnel expenditure is the largest share in education budget, Chart 2 illustrates that about 90% of education budget in all districts is allocated to personnel. The non-personnel education expenditure is mostly for school rehabilitation, except for kabupaten Pati where a larger portion is allocated to school operational costs.

       

       

       

       

       

       

Table 2 compares education expenditure per head of population aged 7 to 18 years old among the five districts. Most district education expenditure is allocated to primary, junior and upper secondary education of children aged 7 to 18 years. Large differences in expenditure are evident, with expenditure per child being over twice as high in Pacitan (the highest) as in Batang (the lowest). In 2003, the average education expenditure per child is the highest in Pacitan (Rp 1.04 million) compared to Probolinggo (Rp 675,000), Pati (Rp 643,000), Banyuwangi (Rp 543,000) and Batang (Rp 465,000). The amount in Batang is lower than the previous year (Rp 573,000 in 2002).

Among the five districts in this study, the current personnel expenditure per child at Pacitan is the highest (Rp 912,000) over twice as high as the lowest, Batang, at (Rp 411,000). This reflects the low pupil:teacher ratios in Pacitan (see section 2.2.1). Compared to 2002, the share of personnel expenditures at education sector in 2003 is slightly decreased in all regions, except at Pacitan (see Appendix 4).

School operational costs, including the allocation for teaching and learning process, is low in all districts. In 2003, the amount per unit ranges from Rp 14,000 in Probolinggo (the lowest) to Rp 49,000 in Pati (the highest). It indicates that the improvement of school quality has not been in high priority in resource terms. This is investigated further in the analysis of school funding in section 3.

Capital expenditure is mostly in the form of school renovation and school expansion, including building new classrooms. In 2003, school rehabilitation fund per unit at Pacitan is the largest (Rp 95,000) compared to other regions in this study.

More complete data summarising district level expenditure on education in both 2002 and 2003 is attached in appendix 4.

Conclusions and planned further action

The variations in education expenditure reflect some of the inefficiencies in the system. Given the high proportion spent on teachers, they reflect especially the inefficient use of teachers. The program will be assisting districts to analyse their expenditure and propose increased efficiencies. The area where most increased efficiencies are expected to be found is in teacher deployment.

One of the central government's main objectives is to develop school based management (SBM), which also envisages a greater role for local communities. This is intended to develop a greater sense of ownership, more efficient use of resources and greater accountability. SBM needs to be supported by adequate funding so that schools can implement the management decisions which they take. The low level of expenditure allocated to covering the operation costs of schools reflect the low priority given to this at present. Indeed most of this expenditure is still managed at district level to purchase books and other materials, rather than being delegated to schools. The program will work with districts to encourage them to allocated increased funding on an equitable basis to schools to support SBM.