School Committee at MI in Purworejo Shows Commitment

After actively participating in the SBM, Community Participation and PAKEM training for schools and their communities, and making a Study Visit to Banyumas, the MI Lubangindangan Committee felt more certain about the MBE program, especially when its school (a Madrasah) was used as the venue for the PAKEM Training for teachers, principals and supervisors from Butuh sub-district, Purworejo between 29 September and 1 October 2005.

There was an extraordinary welcome and support from the school committee for the participants in the PAKEM training. When the training was in progress the school committee, principal and the head of the foundation were busy preparing everything to support the training. They were enthusiastic and fully supported the application of PAKEM.

The committee was determined to improve school quality and expected that MI (Islamic Primary School) teachers would be serious about attending the PAKEM training, and after completing it they would immediately follow it up by applying PAKEM to improve the quality of education in their madrasah.

The great support given by the committee for educational improvement in MI Lumbangdingan and their readiness to increase community participation made the various stakeholders in the madrasah; the foundation, the school principal and teachers even more committed to making progress.

MBE Orientation In Purworejo District

A program of orientation about MBE in Purworejo District took place on 3 October 2005 in the district's public meeting hall. It was held after a number of initial training activities (the first SBM and Community Participation training, a Study Visit, and PAKEM Training) for the target sub-districts had been completed. The orientation program was aimed at all of the sub-districts outside the MBE areas in order to prepare for the dissemination of the program which is expected to be financed by the district government itself.

The MBE program was explained by the MBE Program Director, Stuart Weston and was attended by 240 participants, including local government leaders, the local parliament, agencies involved in education, the local development agency, all heads of sub-districts, all heads of sub-district education offices, 80 school principals, and heads of the clusters (representatives of all clusters in the Purworejo District) and 20 principals from the target sub-districts.

There were a lot of questions and comments about what is MBE and why is it taking place. Fears were expressed about the difficulty of changing patterns of teaching and about the implementation of the program etc. These issues were clarified during this event, and it was the first step in introducing the MBE program more widely to Purworejo District.

Those present were very enthusiastic and welcomed the MBE Program because they could see clearly that there was a commitment from District Government to follow up and sustain the MBE program, even though the assistance from USAID will not be available forever.

This program is expected to be replicated and developed by district governments. In order to support the improvement of educational quality in schools through the MBE program, the district government will provide funds from the 2006 District Budget (APBD). There is a matching commitment from MBE, which will continue to provide technical support and advice in expanding the program.

The Appeal of MBE in Pasuruan

Three technical assistance activities at institutional level have been implemented, including a Study Visit, SBM and Community Participa-tion and PAKEM 1 training. One of the three heads of the sub-district education offices involved, Bpk H. Sutrisno, said he strongly felt the benefits of the program at the institutional level. We could see examples of this in the enthusiastic responses during the training of the participants, both during the implementation of the SBM and Community Participation training and the PAKEM training.

Following Bpk H. Sutrisno's comments, the Head of the Education Office in Pasuruan, Bpk Bahrul Ulum, remarked that this training was different from any he had ever seen or attended before, and almost all the participants were active and working and creating something in every training session. Because of this, many non-target schools protested and asked why their schools were not included in the MBE Training.

In an attempt to solve this problem, Dinas has made efforts to change the budgets to develop the MBE Program in non-target schools. Below are a number of photos of activities in progress.