Children Reflect on Their Learning The SBM, community Participation and PAKEM program aims to increase the role of all stakeholders in the school. This includes the students who, it is hoped, will not be mere passive recipients of lessons from the teacher, but rather will be actively involved in their education. An idea that is frequently seen in MBE schools to increase student partici-pation and provide feedback about the learning, is asking the students to 'reflect' on their learning. This reflection includes their opinions about their lessons, feedback about what they feel they have mastered as well as what they haven't, and their wishes for their future lessons. On the right and below are some examples of re-flections from various districts, including one written in English.

The MBE Program is Working with the DBE Program

As reported in the July edition of the Suara MBE , the new USAID program called 'Decentralized Basic Education' or DBE has begun, and is starting to work in 26 districts in seven provinces. The provinces are Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), North Sumatra, Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java and South Sulawesi.

A large part of the DBE Program is based upon the MBE program and includes supporting education management at district level, developing operational funding for schools, and raising the quality of education through school based management (SBM) community participation and PAKEM.

The consultants supporting the new program gathered for three days in Batu to learn about the MBE program and its impact in the field.

They learned about the issues directly from personnel involved in the MBE program at district level. They also visited a number of MBE and CLCC (a UNESCO-UNICEF Program) target schools in Batu, Blitar and Probolinggo.

USAID and DBE Visit to Probolinggo

As part of an orientation about the MBE and CLCC programs, staff from USAID and the DBE programs visited schools in Probolinggo that have been supported by both programs. On 1 September 2005 USAID representatives led by Jill Gulliksen and Loretta Garden had the opportunity to see the progress achieved in the target schools. The schools visited included SD Betek 1, SD Krucil 2, and SD Bremi 1 in Krucil Sub-district.

The visitors had the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the school communities including students, teachers, principals, and school com-mittees. From these discussions it was apparent that the school community highly appreciated the USAID assistance, which enabled their schools to achieve significant improvements in the areas of both management and learning.

Krucil is one of the MBE's target sub-districts that has been most successful in improving the quality of education. In addition to the target schools, the delegation also spent time having discussions with participants in the out-of-school education program, which is managed by the community learning center (see photo below).

The dialogue took place in a friendly atmosphere, so it made the group feel comfortable and amongst friends.

Working in Harmony in Nganjuk It seems that every-one can unite in MBE. Sister Hedwigh from SD Katolik Budi Luhur and Ibu Umi from SD Islam Aisiyah enjoy working together as a team during SBM training in Nganjuk.