Laws and policies on education

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4. Early Childhood Education, ECE Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini

, PAUD: The conclusion of many studies in a number of countries converged in agreement that early childhood education ECE–during the years before the start of formal schooling –provides short-term and long-term positive impacts in terms of children’s cognitive and non-cognitive development. Based on data on the long-term impacts of ECE on children in poverty, Barnett 1998 found that ECE provided persistent and positive effects on achievement and academic success. Moreover, he further found that the economic returns from providing ECE to poor children far exceeded the cost. This evidence led to calls for further empirical studies on the effects of various policies and interventions to determine which forms would be most beneficial and effective. A recent study by Barnett 2010 found that children in 23 countries experienced the greatest cognitive benefits from programmes containing educational or stimulation components rather than from cash transfer or nutritional programmes. In the case of Indonesia, the emphasis of education policies was confined to stimulating the supply side through the progressive construction of buildings across the country. Starting in 2006 the Ministry of National Education through collaboration with the World Bank and the Kingdom of the Netherlands implemented a new programme to promote ECE, specifically aimed at improving access to ECE Activities Target Target Target Target Budget Budget Budget Budget 2007 2008 2009 2006 Table 4.4: New schools and classrooms built, 2006–2009 Note:฀Budget฀is฀in฀millions฀of฀IDR Source:฀Ministry฀of฀National฀Education,฀various฀years 427 13,273 749 101 2,354 66 334 579.8 730.015 255.6 86.96 174.825 33.0 45.23 564 9,113 983 28 1,479 181 972 684.187 510.328 na 20.475 111.065 126.7 150.15 500 10,949 759 29 803 214 3,289 650.0 656.94 309.1 25.0 80.325 149.8 248.09 177 2 - 10 780 195 3,656 na na na na na na na for children from poor households. The program hopes that by 2013 it will reach approximately 738,000 children, particularly from poor households, in 3,000 villages stretched across 50 districts in 21 provinces. The total budget for this programme was approximately US127.74 million, made up of a government budget central and regional of US34.94 million with additional funding provided by multinational donors and institution grants. The project provided block grants to communities where residents decided how best to deliver ECE services. In addition, the programme prepared 32 national trainers, 200 provincialdistrict trainers and around 6,000 community-based teachers to promote child development. National trainers train the provincialdistrict trainers, who then train the community-based teachers to implement ECE.

5. The National Examination System Ujian Akhir Nasional, UAN; Ujian Nasional,UN: The

ambitious goal of this system was to promote comparable levels of academic achievement among students across all provinces in the country, whether in state or private schools. Prior to this national examination system the name of which was changed from ‘UAN’ to ‘UN’ in 2005, there was a different system called Ebtanas. The most significant and controversial difference between the two examination systems was in the way they determined students able to Junior secondary New schools New classrooms ‘One Roof’ primary-junior secondary Senior secondary New schools New classrooms Vocational senior secondary SMK New schools New classrooms 118 graduate. Using Ebtanas, a student’s graduation is determined by a combination of grades from their first semester, second semester, and their Ebtanas result. The UN, however, sets required score thresholds across a range of subjects in order for the student to graduate from primary school as well as from junior and senior secondary school. With the commencement of UAN in 2002, every junior and senior secondary school student had to obtain an overall average of 3.0 out of a possible 10.0 for the three core subjects of mathematics, English and Bahasa Indonesia. The threshold was raised every year and by 2009, students could only graduate if they managed to obtain an average overall grade of 5.5.

4.3 Education system and institutional setting

The education system in Indonesia follows a ‘six-three-three’ framework comprising: a six years of primary education; b three years of junior secondary education; and c three years of senior secondary education. Senior secondary education is divided into general and vocational streams. 2 Compulsory basic education in Indonesia consists of six years of primary school and three years of junior secondary school, for a total of at least nine years of schooling. Early childhood education ECE and senior secondary school education are not compulsory according to national law. The national education system applies to both state and private schools. In addition, there are also Islamic schools, called madrasah. While regular schools are under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education, the madrasah are supervised by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Islamic teaching is the foundation of the curriculum. As with regular schools, there are also state and private madrasah. In addition, there are also other private religious schools. The non-Islamic religious-based private schools are under the supervision of Ministry of National Education and have to follow the national curriculum, but may include additional courses emphasizing religious studies. In terms of the number of schools, regular non- religious state schools accounted for the vast majority of schools at the primary level, but less than half of those at senior secondary level. The majority of madrasah, at all levels of schooling, are run privately by Islamic foundations Table 4.6. Nearly all ECE kindergarten or preschool institutions are operated by private foundations. Table 4.5: Indonesia’s formal education system Source:฀Calculated฀using฀data฀from฀the฀Ministry฀of฀National฀Education฀and฀Ministry฀of฀Religion฀Affairs Level Pre-school ECE Primary school Junior secondary Senior secondary Age years 3–6 7–12 13–15 16–18 Grades 1–6 7–9 10–12 Regular school TKPAUD SD SMP SMA Islamic school Raudatul Atfal RA Madrasah Ibtidaiah MI Madrasah Tsanawiah MTs Madrasah Aliah MA Types of schools State Private Total Table 4.6: Number of schools and madrasah, 20082009 Source:฀Ministry฀of฀National฀Education฀website฀[www.kepmendiknas.go.id]฀and฀Ministry฀of฀Trade฀website฀ [www.kemendag.go.id]฀accessed฀11฀November฀2010 Primary level Junior secondary level Senior secondary level SD MI SMP MTs SMA MA 131,490 1,567 16,898 1,259 4,797 644 91 7 59 10 45 12 12,738 19,621 11,879 11,624 5,965 4,754 9 93 41 90 55 88 144,228 21,188 28,777 12,883 10,762 5,398 2 Higher education is beyond the scope of this analysis.