Testing The Impact of MBE On Students

During the July Review and Planning Workshop in Banyumas, questions arose relating to the impact of PAKEM and SBM on student performance, among others from Bpk Maidi, the Head of the Education Office in Madiun (photo right). The MBE program has already done an evaluation of the impact of the MBE activities on students, using special tests developed earlier by the MBE program and CLCC (UNICEF-UNESCO).

In the nine phase one and two districts students in 54 schools have been tested twice. The total number of students taking part in each test was between 600 and 1000. The test results showed increased scores from years 2004 to 2005 as follows:

• Reading test grade 1 increased 4.6%
• Reading Comprehension test grade 4 increased 18.3%
• Mathematics test grade 4 increased 7.4%
• Science test grade 5 increased 13.7%

Only in the essay writing test for grade 4 was there a decrease, 6.2%. This last test result was very surprising, because one very visible impact of MBE in schools is in the displays of students' work written in their own words. It is possible that this decrease was not due to decreasing student performance, but due to problems with administration or marking of the tests. The tests will be repeated again next year in primary and junior secondary schools in the 20 MBE areas. Hopefully progress will seen in all subjects.

Grade 6 Examination Results

The above test was designed especially to measure the impact of PAKEM or contextual learning.

How about the impact as measured by the results of the local tests given at the end of each school year in every district? We have received data on the ranking of schools in two districts. This covers all sub-districts in Madiun and the rural sub-district of Tulakan in Pacitan.

The data compiled includes grade 6 examination data for all primary schools in each sub-district for the year before MBE started - 2003 in Pacitan, 2004 in Madiun - and for the year 2005. Data from Madiun includes the madrasahs.

It turns out that in Madiun of 14 MBE target primary schools, 12 have improved their ranking, one school stayed the same, and one school went down by one place. In Mangunharjo sub-district before MBE the 5 target primary schools were ranked as follows 6, 10, 11, 18 and 31. In 2005 they had risen sharply to the occupy the following places 1, 2, 7, 8 and 15 (see the table 1.).

Before MBE started in Tulakan, none of the MBE target schools were in the top 5 of the rankings. The highest was ranked 8. In 2005 four of the five MBE SD target schools were ranked of 1, 2, 3 and 5 (see table 2). This is extraordinary progress!