Radio Mandala, Banyuwangi

The head of the regional education office in Banyuwangi, Bpk Sucipto together with the Chief of Party of MBE, Mr Stuart Weston were inter-viewed by Vina, a journalist from Radio Mandala. She asked about the effects of the MBE program and the plans for the next 2 years. Mr Sucipto expressed his hopes for the future.

Student express their opinions Through PAKEM it is hoped that students can think about, discuss and express their own opinions. Below are the thoughts of a first year SMP 2 Banyuwangi student after visiting the school cooperative. We have copied the child's writing as follows: This activity is very enjoyable. Only the cooperative is too small and when it is busy too crowded, of course we have to queue, but usually after queuing what we want is sold out by the time we get to our turn. My suggestion is: to make it wider so that it is more comfortable and also the shop keeper must be more patient in order to serve effectively or maybe the number of shop assistants/sellers should be increased so that the service is improved, the seller will profit and the customers will be better satisfied and happier. If students write in their own words errors appear that don't appear if they copy from books or the blackboard. It is only through the students' writing that we can evaluate the student's true ability. What do think about this writing? How can you provide feedback to the student so that they write better in the future?

District Facilitators do Teaching Practice

All the training carried out by the MBE program is very practical and directed towards application in the field. Training for new district facilitators was done this way. There were 12 trainers from each district, Kabupaten Banyumas and Kebumen, Kota Madiun, Kabupaten Blitar and Kota Batu. They were selected from the teachers, principals, supervisors, from conventional and religious primary and junior secondary school, as well as several non-teacher representatives.

They were chosen with expertise in the core subjects including Bahasa Indonesia, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and English, and early grades teaching in primary school.

They were accompanied by local government officials, especially from the District Education Office who will organize school and community training activities in their own areas.

'It was an honor for us when Banyuwangi was chosen as the host for the MBE Facilitator Training Program. At the very least it will motivate us to continue developing MBS and PAKEM at school level.'

Those were the words of the Head of the Education office in Banyuwangi, Drs Sucipto when he opened the facilitator training in Banyuwangi on the 20 August 2004. Kabupaten Banyuwangi is one of the target districts where activities have already been running for more than one year, and much has been achieved in their target schools

Training was focused on three elements, School Based Management (SBM), Community Participation and PAKEM. Participants made 2 school visits. The first was to see how far SBM, Community Participation and PAKEM are being implemented and the second to do teaching practice.

The teaching practice was based on several scenarios that had been prepared by MBE with the help of National Trainers. The examples of a PAKEM lesson below demonstrates some aspects of good practice.

In photo 1 you can see students in grade 4 at MIN Sobo learning about transportation. They interview a becak driver and are allowed to sit in the becak while writing their reports in their own words. Their writing is long and interesting. Several students read their report in the front of the class, watched by the teacher, Bpk Suyarto from Madiun.(photo 2)

The grade 6 students report their work in a calm atmosphere (photo 3) while the other students listen to them. After finishing reading out their reports several other students, including Lia (photo 4) gave their comments or asked questions.