Grade 4 Students Visit Bung Karno's Grave

By Bpk Sarmin, Grade 4 teacher at SD Babadan 1

MBE and PAKEM keep moving forward! Many changes have taken place at SD Babadan 1, Wlingi, Blitar since MBE and PAKEM arrived in the school. Our school is really feeling the benefits.

The proof is in the way our children think independently and in their creativity. In April 2005, 126 students from grade 4 were taken on a study tour to Kotes Temple, Penataran Temple, Bung Karno's Grave, the Mini Zoo and the Bung Karno Museum.

Under the supervision of the grade 4 teachers and a number of parents (photo above) they visited historical remains, using them as a learning resource for the study of social sciences. The students were very enthusiastic. Together with their friends they wrote down in detail all the information they collected from their guide.

After the visit they wrote very good reports. Each student typed their report on the computer. Right, Wilden is seen reading out his report. Below is his report about the visit to Bung Karno's grave.

These are some of the things that have changed at SD Babadan 1 since joining the MBE and its PAKEM Program and we hope things will keep moving forward.

Ibu Srianah, an MBE facilitator for the early years in Blitar, who has already had experience of training teachers outside her district, is a grade 3 teacher at SD Babadan 1. Her classroom is very interesting and displays a great deal of quality student work and student creativity. Above we can see Cakra holding a hat which was made for tayup art (traditional art).

Students at SD Beru 1 are highly motivated to learn. Even during their break time students in grade 2 and their teacher, Ibu Endang Harijati, can be seen working in their classroom (photo above).

Multi-Grade in Pacitan

The Mapping Team worked intensively to gather school statistical data, and analyse it. They found that the teacher distribution was uneven, and there were variations in the student teacher ratio in different schools. For example, one school had 7 teachers and 37 students, which is not efficient. Many other schools were in similar situations, while at the same time other sub-districts had shortages of teachers.

Based on the findings from the mapping, the team are trying to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of the education system. One of their important recommendations that they hoped would become local government policy concerned merging primary schools and the formation of multi-grade classes because this policy will save the local government money and also will also help with teacher distribution.

In this learning model, which used to be called "SD Kecil" – small primary schools, one teacher teaches 2 classes. One school only requires 3 teachers, 1 principal and administrative staff.

The efforts of the district team certainly had an impact. This year there is a Decree from the Bupati Number 100 dated 13 July 2005 on "Merging and Changing the Status of Primary Schools" Adapun sekolah yang digabung meliputi 14 sekolah. Sementara sekolah yang berubah status dari SD konvensional menjadi sekolah kelas rangkap (multi grade) berjumlah 36 sekolah yang tersebar di dua belas kecamatan. There were 14 merged schools. The number of schools that changed their status from conventional primary schools to become multigrade schools was 36, spread over all 12 sub-districts.

Based upon this decree, the affected institutions have to move excess teachers as soon as possible from the merged and multi-grade schools to other schools. This is not easy thing to do and will probably meet with resistance from staff who feel they are being disadvantaged. However, based on objective analysis, and in the interests of education it needs to be done.

In order to accelerate the implementation of the multi-grade learning, the Education Office is working with the MBE program to conduct training for multi-grade teachers and provide them with modules for support. The first training will be held on 1 – 4 August 2005 and will involve teachers, principals, and school committees. The Education Office is also planning to give an incentive to the teachers in these schools.