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Workshop on Education Funding in Madiun
In February a workshop on the school funding was held in Madiun. The aim was to calculate the minimum funding that is needed per student per grade each year in order to provide an adequate education. This activity was attended by principals, teachers, and school committees from 20 schools including conventional and religious primary, junior and senior secondary schools.
The Education Commission of the DPRD (local parliament), Bappeda, Education Office, Finance Department, and Education Council (Dewan Pendidikan) also participated. During the workshop the participants tried to identify the essential individual cost components that were needed to provide an education, and calculate rough cost estimates. Here are the results of the calculations for the minimum cost needed per student per month:
Group 1 SD/MI (primary) = Rp. 42.332;
Group 2 SD/MI (primary) = Rp. 85.250;
Group 3 SMP/MTs (junior secondary) = Rp. 48.854;
Group 4 SMA/MA (senior secondary) = Rp. 58.500;
Group 5 SMK (vocational) = Rp. 192.229.
You can see large differences between the calculations, as groups made different assumptions. As an example there are significant differences between the primary school groups. Group 2 calculated an amount that was twice that of group 1. According to the Madiun school funding team this was only a start which will be followed up with more detailed calculations by a team formed by the local government.
The final results from the local government team will be used as a point of reference for the Education Office and Finance Department in order to work out minimum education funding allocations which meet Minimum Service Standards (MSS) for Madiun city.
Below are the results from one of the group's analysis of the component costs for education.
Coordination Meeting for East Java Education Sector
On 27 January 2005, a coordination meeting was held in Surabaya. Provincial and district governments, donors and a number of programs in the education sector participated. The initiative came from a number of parties as it was felt that there were some misunderstandings and a lack of coordination in the planning and implementation of donor programs. In order to address this issue it was agreed that the government bodies and donors should sit down together and discuss these issues, with the aim being to coordinate their ideas and objectives.
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Participants in the coordination meeting
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The meeting was opened by Bpk Hadi Prayitno, Head of the Provincial Planning Agency in East Java, and attended by the Bpk Kusrianto and Mr. Sirmiaji from the Provincial Education Commission, Head of the Social and Cultural Affairs section, Bpk Setiajit, Head of Education for East Java Province, Bpk Rasiyo and his staff, and a representative of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in East Java Province. The donors included USAID, UNESCO, UNICEF, AusAID, and the programs present included CLCC, MBE, LAPIS, IAPBE, and NTTPEP.
The meeting started with a presentation from each program, followed by a question and answer session, and a group discussion (in 3 groups) on the topic of : Strategy and Program Development for Basic Education Quality Improvement to ensure the Success and Sustainability of the programs. Based on the results of the group discussions, a number of agreements emerged:
There is a need for coordination activities on a routine basis (once every 6 months) at the levels of :
Province : Form a coordination team (Bappeda, East Java Education Office, DPRD Commission E, Education Council, Department of Religious Affairs, representatives of the donors and programs). Improved cross sector coordination, vertically and horizontally.
Donors : More and better meetings between donors and programs, also making and sharing materials (training packets, workshops, lessons learned, etc.).
Participation of all parties in a more concerted program of advocacy by donor institutions and their programs to the DPRD (parliament), decision making institutions, and the media.
Attempt to secure counterpart funding to assure sustainability and the continuity of programs (at province and district levels).
Need to form a team to develop SBM, PAKEM and Community Participation programs at provincial level ( including representatives of the Education Office, Education Quality Improvement Institute, donors, Ministry of Religious Affairs, and others).
Coordinate ideas, objectives and training programs with respect to curriculum, supervisors, principals, and teachers.
It was very encouraging to see this development. Furthermore, in the discussion sessions all participants were very enthusiastic in expressing their opinions. Hopefully this meeting and the outcomes from it will not stop here, but rather it will be the start of effective coordination and cooperation at the Provincial, District, Donor and Program levels.
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