Welcome to the Managing Basic Education (MBE) Program website. The MBE Program was supported by USAID. One of the important objectives of this homepage is to provide information and assistance to schools that have not had contact with the MBE or previous USAID programs. It is hoped that the information contained in this website relating to School Based Management (SBM), Active, Creative, Effective and Joyful Learning (PAKEM) and the Roles of the Community (PSM) will stimulate other schools that wish to improve the quality of education in their schools using their own resources. The Managing Basic Education (MBE) project ran from February 2003 until June 2007, working in 23 districts in East and Central Java, Aceh and Jakarta. The project worked to create models of good practice as follows: At District Level in the Management of Resources and Education Funding At School Level in School Based Management (SBM), Community Participation and Active, Creative, Joyful and Effective Learning (better known by its Indonesian acronym PAKEM) The MBE website contains the following documents related to the program, which can be used freely (but not commercially) to support education development in Indonesia and elsewhere. These include: Suara MBE: 15 editions of the project newsletter, which record many of the innovations developed in the program districts. 'Suara MBE' translates to the 'Voice of' MBE. School and Community Training Packages 1 – 4, which were developed jointly with the CLCC (UNESCO-UNICEF), IAPBE and NTT-PEP (AUSAID) and DBE (USAID) programs and have been used widely by a number of programs and NGOs in various parts of the country Best Practices Manuals recording best practices found in MBE districts in the areas of management and teaching and learning A List of Directly Supported Schools with recommendations of those which could be visited by schools and others wishing to learn more A List of District Facilitators (Trainers) - many of whom have experience in training schools not only in their own district but also in other districts A Final Independent Evaluation of the Project carried out in early 2007 Other Documents: Monitoring Reports, Reports of Student Impact Assessment and other project documents

Suara MBE #14 Contents in Brief: As planned, MBE will finish in March 2007. Activities in the partner districts will continue to the end of the program, and will include training for all the partner schools. Education Management and Finance Stories about innovations in the districts. Other stories from the districts. Examples of PAKEM Teaching: Interesting examples of PAKEM lessons from the districts. A representative of the US Congress visits a school in Aceh; MBE helps a team from Finland; Visit by schools from Bogor to MBE districts. MBE Appears in the New York Times. Jane Perlez, a reporter from the New York Times visited SDN Tangkil 01 and MIN Tegalasri in Wlingi Subdistrict, Blitar on 27 July 2006. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 14

Suara MBE #13 Contents in Brief: The Ministry of National Education (MoNE) organized an education seminar and exhibition at the Ministry in Jakarta on 22-23 May 2006. On July 22 B. Lynn Pascoe, the US Ambassador to Indonesia accompanied by Bill Frej, the Director of USAID Indonesia, visited another of the partner schools, SD 69 Banda Aceh. As part of the technical assistance in the area of education finance, MBE and Pati District Education Office held a special Review Meeting on the subject. This year Blitar district is drawing up a District Education Development Plan (RIPP). The first round of teachers work-ing group activities in the MBE clusters in three sub-districts took place over a period of two weeks. Impact of the National Review Meeting in Pasuruan.... Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 13

Suara MBE #12 Contents in Brief: Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State visited Indonesia on 14 March and asked to visit one of the Jakarta schools, MI Al Ma'Muriyah in Cikini. Several programs which are working in the Basic Education sector gathered in Bali in February 2006. The workshop, which was conducted by the Directorate of Primary and Kindergarten Education, was intended to coordinate the work of the programs. In Solo in February 2006 the MBE team were able to visit a number of schools that are showing progress in Sukoharjo district, which is near Solo. SBM and community participation training took place in Magetan district on 7 March in the education office hall and in Maospati sub-district in the teachers' resource center at SDN Malang. The visit of the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice to MI Al Ma'Muriyah, Cikini (photos). Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 12

Suara MBE #11 Contents in Brief: The USAID Director for Asia and the Middle east, Mr. Kunder, visited MBE target schools at Batu, SD Tulungrejo 4 and MI Bustanul Ulum. In line with the USAID aid program for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam MBE is also helping in Aceh. MBE and the Local Government Support Program (LGSP) are working in partnership with Probolinggo district. Teachers at Pasuruan are showing significant development. Industrial world cares about education at Probolinggo. Probolinggo children wrote to their friends in Aceh. Teaches in Madiun city are implementing PAKEM by conducting KKG-MGMP meetings. MBE spreads beyond Java. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 11

Suara MBE #10 Contents in Brief: MBE Target Schools have Improved their Exam Scores: From the grade 6 examination data for primary schools in Madiun and Pacitan it appears that the performance of the MBE target schools has improved sharply relative to other schools since MBE started. Dewan Pendidikan (Education Councils) from all MBE dstricts have reached an agreement that reflects their aspirations for advancing education. Portfolios Record Student Progress: Some teachers are using portfolios of work to record their students’ development and progress. Students Reflect on Their Lessons: Many schools are asking their students to give feedback to teachers about their lessons. Multi-Grade Teacher Training: MBE has provided training for schools where the teachers are teaching multi-grade classes. Examples of PAKEM Lessons can be found in several sections in this edition of Suara MBE. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 10

Suara MBE #9 Contents in Brief: Activities have started in 11 phase 3 MBE target districts with Orientation Workshops. A USAID Indonesia priority is the development of basic education. USAID has allocated a budget of more than of US$100 million to support a new program called ‘Decentralized Basic Education’. Activities for the 11 phase 3 districts included Education Funding Workshops. Trengagalek already implementing education operational support Formula Funding. Kebasen sub-district, Banyumas held an education exhibition. The exhibition was supported by all the MBE target schools in Kebasen sub-district. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 9

Suara MBE #8 Contents in Brief: Starting this month, April 2005, the MBE will move into 5 new districts in Central Java and 6 new districts in the East Java. Central Java: the districts of Purbalingga, Purworejo, Semarang, Sukoharjo, and Magelang city. East Java: the districts of Magetan, Malang, Nganjuk, Situbondo, Trenggalek and Pasuruan city. In February a workshop on the school funding was held in Madiun. The aim was to calculate the minimum funding that is needed per student per grade each year in order to provide an adequate education. In each target area MBE has trained a team of 12 facilitators. They were chosen from teachers, principals, supervisors and other local government staff. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 8

Suara MBE #7 Contents in Brief: A national review and planning meeting was held in Batu from 4 - 7 January for the nine current MBE Districts. The MBE Project took part in a PDPP-PERFORM National Conference from 6 - 8 December at the Sanur Paradise Hotel, Bali. The MBE program will conduct a workshop in early 2005 to analyze the school mapping data collected by the five new districts (Banyumas, Kebumen, Kota Madiun, Blitar and Kota Batu). The practical teaching sessions of the PAKEM training were conducted in Wlingi schools. During this we had the opportunity to visit a number of MBE target schools. One of the aims of MBE is to increase the efficiency of the use of educational resources. The school mapping and data collection in the target sub-districts supports this aim. Below is a interesting story from Blitar which demonstrates its potential. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 7

Suara MBE #6 Contents in Brief: MBE has spread to more than 900 schools outside the target schools, Pondok Pesantren Learn about SBM and PAKEM, MBE MBE Banyuwangi Attends an Expo, MBE Supports the New Curriculum, Signing of MOUs, What does MBE do?, PAKEM is OK!, Thematic Learning in Grade 1, Student Organization (OSIS) in SMPN 1 Banyuwangi, From Banyuwangi - SD Jajag 2 Advances on Many Fronts, Negative Behavior Point Values, SDN 04 Penganjuran, Radio Mandala Banyuwangi, District Facilitators do Teaching Practice, Socialization of MBE throughout Pati, PAKEM Training in 19 sub-districts in Pati, From the PAKEM Training in Pati - We want to progress together, SDN Bentul in Banyumas - The Best at Scouting want to be best at PAKEM, Innovation in Batu, SDN Ngaglik 1 Advances on Several Fronts - Open and transparent, Integrated PAKEM Learning in Grade 1, Learning English from Kindergarten, Donation Box Helps School, SD Plus Al Irsyad, and much more! Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 6

Suara MBE #5 Contents in Brief: An Orientation workshop was held Probolinggo so that the participants could visit schools which are already functioning well in respect of SBM, Community Participation and PAKEM. SHIP (School Health Improvement Program) is working in four districts in Central Java to improve the health of school children. Our Australian colleagues have already started to implement an MBE program in three districts in East Java. Prima Setiawan one of our MBE consultants went to Phnom Penh to take part in PETS (Public Expenditure Tracking Survey) training. Younger generation interact with their environment in SDN 2 Sembasuragar, Pati. Several donors and programs working in the Basic Education sector in East Java attended a meeting in Surabaya on 29 April 2004 to discuss mutual cooperation. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 5

Suara MBE #4 Contents in Brief: The program will shortly begin to work in five new districts including : Kota Batu, Kota Madiun and the district of Blitar in East Java, and the districts of Banyumas and Kebumen in Central Java. To support School Based Management it is quite clear that it is more efficient for teachers, principals and school committees to manage purchasing. If we want to train teachers to teach using PAKEM, we must also model the PAKEM way. Training from the facilitators must be active, creative, effective and joyful. At the PAKEM training in Pati district the primary school teachers tried using the environment as a learning resource. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 4

Suara MBE #3 Contents in Brief: Up-to-date and well organised data is an essential tool for the good management of education. School Mapping and Data Collection has taken place in the two target sub-districts in each project district. The principals, school committee members and teachers have only recently been trained, but already a number of schools in each district are beginning to introduce changes. All areas complain of teacher shortages, whereas in fact in several areas the ratio of the number of students to teachers is fairly low. Based on the analysis of the mapping data a merger of schools is being proposed. The children will be able to be spread more evenly across the classes if there are parallel classes. According to research in many countries, the factor which most determined the quality of the education in a school is the school principal. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 3

Suara MBE #2 Contents in Brief: Five MBE districts signed an MOU to support the implementation of the RTI/USAID program. An Education Management Workshop was held in Yogyakarta from 1 to 4 September 2003. An education management survey was conducted which included the following areas: finance, planning, teacher management and facilities. Approximately 90% of education expenditure is used to pay salaries, mainly teachers’ salaries. The Bupati of Pekalongan was sure that if funding for rehabilitation and building was given directly to schools for them to manage by themselves this would develop a sense of ownership. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 2

Suara MBE #1 USAID has been giving assistance for several years in the area of local government through projects such as PERFORM, BIGG and CLEAN. Basic Education was chosen as the focus of this program as it is the largest sector managed by local government. An interesting idea from Sukapura Sub District is developing education vouchers. In Probolinggo District the teachers of some schools opened the doors and asked the mothers to come into the school and help with student activities in the class. The RAPBS (School Budget Plan) is displayed in principal's office. Table of Contents MBE Newsletter 1