TNP2K, in Coordination with the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) faciltates a National Meeting on Improving Teacher Performance
26 August 2015
The National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) conducted a National Meeting (Rakernas) to facilitate a comprehensive review of the Teacher Performance and Accountability (KIAT Guru) program. Meeting participants focused on improving Indonesian education outcomes particularly in rural and remote areas. The meeting was held on August 25th, 2015 at MoEC in Jakarta.
KIAT Guru is operational in the districts of Keerom, Kaimana and Ketapang. A number of studies and pilots were conducted to encourage community involvement in education services in 31 villages. KIAT Guru works to improve the mechanism for and transparency of teachers’ allowance payments by tying payment to teacher performance.
According to data released by the SMERU Research Institution in 2010, nearly 1 in every 3 teachers who receive an allowance are infact absent from school. UNICEF also found that nearly 1 in every 2 primary school teachers in rural and remote areas of Papua and West Papua are absent from school.
Bambang Widianto, Deputy to the Vice President, Human Development and Equitable Development Policy Support and Executive Secretary for the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), believes there is a need to tie teacher allowances to teacher performance. Such conditionality, complemented by community engagement in the monitoring of teacher performance, is expected to improve educational services and therefore student achievement.
Anies Baswedan, the Minister of Education and Culture expressed his enthusiasm for the innovation piloted by TNP2K. “Teachers are the main actors in an education system. We need to support them. If the absenteeism rate is high, it is our responsibility to resolve the issues that cause it to be so. Many of those involved in KIAT Guru field work were part of the young teacher (Pengajar Muda) program in remote areas of Indonesia. The presence of even one person who is highly committed can become a catalyst for change in that area,” he explained.
Anies Baswedan also explained that parents need to be able to directly communication with the school instead of being completely reliant on the school committee to represent parents’ views. School committees tend to address managerial and operational issues at school. Direct communication between parents and teachers need to be more intensive because a child’s education is a shared responsibility. One or two discussions per semester are not enough. A strategy is needed to strengthen the educational culture, improve quality and access, and develop an effective bureaucracy through good governance and public participation.
Anies Baswedan also conveyed the need the involve more stakeholders such as the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the KIAT Guru approach.
Sumarna Surapranata, Director General for Teachers and Education Personnel, MoEC conveyed that a study on teacher absenteeism conducted by the Education Sector Analytical and Capacity Development Partnership (ACDP) in 2014 found that teacher absenteeism in remove areas is twice as high as absenteeism at the national level. “There is a strong need for the community to participate in monitoring and reporting back on teacher attendance and performance,” Sumarna said.
Through KIAT Guru, TNP2K developed three instruments to assess teacher performance. The first instrument is an android based application that can be used to accurately record teacher and student attendance. The second instrument diagnoses student's literacy and
and numeracy skills. Results from this diagnosis can be used to map student skills and to allow communities to understand the extent to which student achievement in their village compares with national student achievement.
A third instrument allows communities to assess teacher performance using 5-8 indicators which measure teacher performance on professionalism, pedagogy, social and personal skills. These indicators are listed in a services assessment form that should be completed every month by a committee that consists of representatives of parents and communities. Community participation is expected to provide inputs to those tasked with implementing Law 6 Year 2014 on Villages to ensure that village funds are adequately spent on improving educational services.
These three instruments are used to support a policy to link allowance payment with teacher performance, and to improve teacher accountability. This approach is aligned with Law 5 Year 2014 on Civil State Apparatus in the field of education.
More information on KIAT Guru can be accessed through the links below:
1. Innovating to Improve Teacher Performance
2. Community Participation to Improve Education Services
3. Performance based allowance
4. Video: Innovating to Improve Teacher Performance