SCHOOL ACCREDITATION FOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION IN INDONESIA: A NEW PARADIGM
Prepared by:

Prof. W.B.P. Simanjuntak, Ph.D.

Jakarta, July 14, 2005

Introduction

School accreditation have been implemented in Indonesian School System since 1950s and it was for "private schools" only in the scheme of controlling the private schools by the government. The accreditation result give the private schools three levels of status namely: registered, aided, and subsidized. Registered Private School has the right to run the school and get no help from government. Aided Private School get several kinds of aids, such as: books for teachers as well as for students, teaching media, school equipment, office supplies, etc. Subsidized Private School get several teachers and administrative personnel paid by the government on top of help that received in aided status. This accreditation system was controlled centrally by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Later in 1984, the level of the status changed to "operational permit, recognition, and equivalent". In general, the government treat the private school with these new status were about the same with the old system, except, for the "equivalent private schools" they have the right to carry-out their own "final examination" and issued the diploma". This accreditation system was controlled provincially by the Provincial Office of Department of Education and Culture.

Very recently, in 2002, the Minister of National Education issued the Ministry’s decree concerning the new paradigm of "school accreditation". Different with the old system of accreditation, this new paradigm of accreditation is an accreditation for all kinds and level of schools, general schools, technical or vocational schools, private as well as public schools, from Kindergarten up to Primary, Junior and Senior Secondary School level.     

The ultimate goals of the school accreditation is to get data and information through accreditation procedure that can be used to see how far the appropriateness of services and the performance of a certain school from the existing standard of quality. Based on these data and information it is expected also to be used in developing "educational quality improvement policy and planning" by the school itself as well as by the Department of National Education and the local government at provincial, district, and municipal level.  

In brief, the Ministry's Decree gives the direction of what the school accreditation should achieved, the functions, the objectives, the components of accreditation, the level of accreditation qualification, and other points that should be further developed by the National Board of School Accreditation (NBSA).

In 2003, NBSA was established based on the Department of National Education's Decree and had been set up as a "semi independent" body. Most of the NBSA members are appointed from independent educational experts, informal leaders, and representative of community who concerned in education. Influenced by the reform of Indonesia Policy in decentralization, NBSA has been set up in three levels: national, provincial, and district/municipal level.       

The NBSA has the following functions:

1. To develop and formulate the policy, procedure, and the instruments for the school accreditation
   
   
2. To carry-out implementation of socialization of the policy, procedure, and the instruments of the school accreditation
   
   
3. To develop and supervise the Provincial Board of School Accreditation (PBSA) and the District/Municipal Board of School Accreditation (D/MBSA)
   
   
4. To delegate some of the authority in implementing the school accreditation to the PBSA and D/MBSA for the schools under their responsibility
   
   
5. To determine specification and publish the blank certificate for assessors and for the school after accreditation and filled and issued by PBSA as well as D/MBSA
   
   
6. To monitor and evaluate the implementation of school accreditation
   
   
7. To develop recommendation of follow-up action based on the result of accreditation
   
   
8. To report nationally the results of school accreditation;
   
   
9. To carry-out administrative activities of NBSA
   
   
10. To develop and coordinate database system of NBSA.
    

The PBSA has the following functions:

1. To carry-out implementation of socialization of the policy about school accreditation for school of handicap-students (kindergarten, junior and senior secondary school level), general senior secondary school, and technical and vocational senior secondary school
   
   
2. To carry-out school accreditation for their respective schools under their responsibility
   
   
3. To determine the level of accreditation, issue the certificate for the schools under their responsibility and publish the results of accreditation
   
   
4. Reporting the results of school accreditation for provincial level
   
   
5. To carry-out administrative activities of PBSA
   
   
6. To develop database system for the schools under their responsibility.
   

The D/MBSA has the following functions:

1. To carry-out implementation of socialization of the policy about school accreditation for kindergartens, primary schools, and junior secondary schools
   
   
2. To carry-out school accreditation for their respective schools under their responsibility
   
   
3. To determine the level of accreditation, issue the certificate for the schools under their responsibility and publish the results of accreditation
   
   
4. Reporting the results of school accreditation for district/municipal level
   
   
5. To carry-out the administrative activities of the D/MBSA
   
   
6. To develop database system for the schools under their responsibility
   

In the Ministry's Decree of 2002 it is mentioned also the requirement of the school to be accredited as follows:
  

1. The school as an institution has the letter of permission from the government
   
   
2. The school has the students in all level of grades
   
   
3. The school has educational equipment and facilities
   
   
4. The school has educational personnel (teachers and administrative staffs)
   
   
5. The school implementing the national curriculum
   
   
6. The school has the graduate students
      

Current Status

As mentioned in the previous part, the new school accreditation will try to find out how far the schools give the appropriate educational services to the students based upon the educational resources or components they have compare to the minimum standard of services determined by the Department of National Education. In regard with this concept the instrument of the new school accreditation emphasized on the availability of educational resources or components and the kinds of activities they carry-out in day-to-day activities. So, the items of questionnaire in the instruments mainly asking whether the school has a certain equipments, facilities, and documents or has not, and whether the school do a certain activities or  do not. Some items also asking about the ratio, such as, student: classroom, student: text books, etc.     

Educational components in this school accreditation are as follows:

1. Curriculum and teaching-learning processes
   
   
2. Administration and School Management
   
   
3. Organization and School Institution
   
   
4. Facilities and Equipments
   
   
5. Personnel
   
   
6. Financial and Budgeting
   
   
7. Students
   
   
8. Community Participation
   
9. Environment and School Culture
   

Each kind or level of school has a different instrument for accreditation. For general school, like kindergarten, primary school, junior secondary school, and senior secondary school, each level of school has its own instrument and accreditation goes to the "institution" as a whole. School for handicap children, kindergarten, primary school, junior and senior secondary school level also has its own instrument for each level of school and accreditation will go to the "program" that the school has and is not to the school as an institution. Since the technical and vocational school has only one level, that is "senior secondary level", so each school has its own instrument and accreditation will go also to the "program". If a vocational school has three program, such as: tourism, office secretary, and hotel, the vocational school will have three results of accreditation.

In the Ministry' Decree it is mentioned also that the result of accreditation will give the school (in general school) or program (in school for handicap children and technical and vocational school) three level of qualification, namely: accredited A (very good), with the total scores from 86 to 100, accredited B (good), with the total scores from 70 to 85, and accredited C (good enough/adequate), with total scores from 56 to below 70, and the school which has scores below 56 is considered as not accredited.

Each accreditation qualification, A, B, or C, will describe the status of the 9 educational components of each school or the program of the school. From accreditation qualification we can also see which component is good, very good or still not accredited. By having the accreditation qualification will give benefit to the school as a feed-back for their further improvement and development, for educational bureaucracy as input for developing the school improvement program, for stakeholders (including parents) as information in which can be used for school enrollment and the most important it become a quality assurance of the school system.  

In conducting the school accreditation, the following the steps or procedures should be followed by all PBSA and D/MBSA:

1. All PBSA and D/MBSA give clear information to all schools under their responsibility about the school accreditation, such as, the objectives, the procedures, the instrument to be filled, the documents that should be provided by the school, and other rules that should be followed
   
   
2. The school submit a request to be accredited to PBSA or D/MBSA (depending upon the kind and level of the school), but the school should get approval first from the Provincial / District / Municipal Office of National Education
   
   
3. After receiving the request, PBSA or D/MBSA will give the instrument to be filled by the school ( Self-Evaluation)
   
   
4. The school fill or answer the questionnaires with complete answer and honestly, and based on the real situations / conditions
   
   
5. After filling the questionnaire in the Self-Evaluation instrument, the school return it to respective board of school accreditation
   
   
6. The Board of school accreditation counting the score of the filled instrument (Self-Evaluation) as temporary result. If the total score = 56 or above, the school is eligible to be visited by the assessors or accreditors. At the latest within 5 months after receiving the result of Self-Evaluation instrument, the board of school accreditation should send 2 (two) assessors to each school to check, clarify, validate, and verify how far the school can proof the truth of the answer they have given in the instrument. If the total of the score < 56 or below 56, the school is not eligible to be visited by the assessors or in another words the school is unaccredited school. The board will report the result to the Provincial / District / Municipal Office of National Education to get follow-up action in improving and developing the school
   
   
7. The Board send the assessors to visit the school which has total temporary scores = 56 or above. Based on the results of visitation, the Board will make analysis (compare the results of Self-Evaluation, the results of visitation, and other information/documents relevant to the instrument) and bring the final results to the plenary meeting of the board members and make decision whether a school will get A, B, or C qualification or unaccredited school.
   
   
8. Based on the result of the plenary meeting, the board will issue the certificate of accreditation for each school.
   
   
9. Certificate of accreditation valid for 4 (four) years.
   

There are several requirement to be appointed as assessor or accreditor:

1. Have a high capability / competency and self integrity and commitment to do the job as an assessor
   
   
2. Maximum age 65 years old
   
   
3. Have a good physical condition
   
   
4. Have at least 5 years experience working in educational offices or school
   
   
5. Educational requirement: Master degree or Strata-1 for junior and senior secondary school; D-3 diploma (three years in university) for kindergarten and primary school
   
   
6. He / she is not hold a position in a bureaucracy office and/or he / she is not a member of a board of accreditation;

Issues

Some major constraints in implementing this new system of school accreditation are as follows:

1. Since the budget (partly) should be born by the local government and some local government have higher income and some less income, make the capability of the board different from one to another
   
   
2. It is difficult to have qualified assessor in many districts / municipals that can fulfill all the requirement for assessors mentioned above
   
   
3. Since some of the members of the board in some provinces/districts/municipals are coming from the local government offices, it is difficult to maintain "independency" of the board.