Review and Planning Meeting

A national review and planning meeting was held in Batu from 4 - 7 January for the nine current MBE Districts. The meeting was attended by several local government agencies including Bappeda (local planning agency), the education office, the religious affairs office, DPRD (local parliament) members and the Dewan Pendidikan (Education Council).

The DPRD members who attended also met to discuss how they can support the development of education in their regions both through the MBE program and in other ways. The involvement of a variety of stakeholders is essential to ensure the sustainability of MBE activities.

Each district made a display showing the results of the MBE program in their district. This included what has been achieved in the target schools (see Blitar display on right). The displays were very impressive and were proof of the enthusiasm of local governments and schools in each area in implementing the MBE program.

Learning From the Experience of Others

The MBE program prioritizes the sharing of ideas between districts and between schools. Different areas develop in different ways. At the review meeting districts had the chance to hear about innovations from other areas, in the hope that they will want to copy these ideas. This included four school principals who explained about implementation of School Based Management (SBM) and Active, Creative, Effective, and Joyful Learning (PAKEM) in their schools.

Ibu Purnowati, Kebumen and Bpk Misgiman, Pacitan (photo up), explained about the success of the School Mapping which has been implemented in all sub-districts in both districts. Bpk Syaiful, Pati, Ibu Mistin, Batu and Bpk Sukarman, Madiun explained about implementation of the school funding through the use of a funding formula, which has been applied in their areas.

Of particular benefit to the participants were the visits to MBE target schools at Batu and Blitar (photo from SD Tulungrejo 4, Batu in up). All the participants were very impressed with the development in the two districts even though the program has been running there for only a few months. You can see more pictures from the review and planning meeting on the back page.

Monitoring the Impact of MBE

The MBE program has now been working for over a year in the five phase one districts: Batang, Pati, Pacitan, Probolinggo and Banyuwangi. The monitoring team visited these districts in September 2004 to record progress in the main areas covered by the MBE program. The changes that were observed were proof of the commitment of stakeholders at district, sub-districts, school and community levels. A summary of the findings of the monitoring can be found on page 14 and 15. The complete report can be read on the website mbeproject.net

On the other pages you can also read stories from the districts which record developments at district, sub-district and at school level. These activities have been reported as examples for others to follow.

Children Discuss The Tsunami

In a number of MBE schools students have been discussing the earthquake and tsunami in Aceh. It is very important for children to discuss and understand issues like this, however not many schools acutally do so. Above Bpk Suyitno, principal of SD Ngepung, Probolinggo and an MBE facilitator, is showing students' work from his school which was displayed at the review and planning meeting in Batu. This issue is discussed further on page 13.