BANDA ACEH: Lightning Selection of Facilitators

On 1 February 2006 a team from MBE made a lightning selection of district facilitators for Banda Aceh. We use the word 'lightning', since the selection of facilitators normally takes three days, whereas in Banda Aceh it was done in one day.

Even so the established procedures for selecting district facilitators were carried out fully. The selection of district facilitators included observation of the candidates teaching, focus group discussions and finished with an interview.

The candidates were chosen from those participants who performed well in the first PAKEM training in Banda Aceh. After coordination with the education and culture office in Banda Aceh, 24 candidates were chosen, consisting of teachers, school principals and primary school supervisors.

After the final selection 12 people were chosen as facilitators consisting of 2 each for the early grades, mathematics, science, social studies, Bahasa Indonesia and SBM/community participation (photo below).

First Training of PAKEM Facilitators (ToT) in Banda Aceh

Pada tanggal 2 - 3 Februari 2006 Pelatihan Fasilitiator (TOT) PAKEM 1 dilaksanakan di Banda Aceh untuk fasilitator daerah Banda Aceh. Kegiatan TOT ini dibuka oleh Kepala Dinas P dan K Banda Aceh yang sangat bersemangat untuk meningkatkan mutu pendidikan di daerahnya. Kegiatan TOT PAKEM 1 ini diikuti oleh 12 fasilitator daerah dan 5 dosen Universitas Syiah Kuala.

The first training of PAKEM district facilitators (ToT) took place on 2-3 February 2006 in Banda Aceh. The training was opened by the Head of the Education and Culture Office in Banda Aceh, who is very enthusiastic about raising the quality of education in his district. The 12 district facilitators and 5 lecturers from the University of Syiah Kuala took part in the PAKEM training.

As it only lasted for two days, the training focused on the development of PAKEM, creat-ing a good learning en-vironment and finished off with practical teaching using PAKEM methods. At the end of the training the district facilitators made their own follow-up plans.

As a whole the training of district facilitators in PAKEM went well. All the participants, the Banda Aceh facilitators and the University of Syiah Kuala lecturers were satisfied with the training and felt they had learned a lot. Even the lecturers from the University of Syiah Kuala wanted to increase their understanding of PAKEM at the next ToT.

SEMARANG: Amberawa Makes a Study Visit

In order to enrich the experience of their schools the Heads of the Education Offices in Amberawa and Pringapus sub-districts had the idea of making internal study visits. The idea was that they should learn lessons from their local schools before making visits to other areas.

So on 23 February 2006 all the primary schools (SD and MI) in Amberawa sub-district made a study visit to MBE schools in Pringapus sub-district. Pringapus sub-district did the same thing in Amberawa on 12 April 2006. In the picture se-veral teachers from Amberawa sub-district are watching a lesson at SD Wonorejo 2.

Gradually Moving Forward

Since they joined the MBE program, school managers have had lots of new insights and ideas. To support this, the MBE schools in Semarang district have formed AN MBE FORUM FOR A SEMARANG DISTRICT. This forum is a place for developing ideas and exchanging opinions in an effort to increase the quality of teaching in schools.

As follow-up from the forum, MBE schools have already undertaken several activities, especially teachers working group activities (KKG). These groups included non MBE schools within the cluster. During the meetings teachers from the MBE schools gave lessons in class and were watched by teachers from other schools and supported by facilitators. After they had finished teaching they reflected together on what they had seen and the result of the discussions will be reported to the plenary meeting of the KKG.

PUBALINGGA: Facilitators Mentoring in Schools

After the training in Solo in February 2006 the district facilitators from Purbalingga started immediately doing mentoring in MBE schools. This mentoring was intended to monitor the implementation of MBE and to work directly in class to consolidate the practice of PAKEM.

The mentoring was done by subject. In addition the district facilitators found lots of issues related to the practice of PAKEM. One of these issues was that teachers lacked understanding of how to apply PAKEM in class. As a result of this mentoring the teachers are working more confidently and have more confidence in applying PAKEM.