Beranda PSPK Volume XIV: School zonation and Equal Education Opportunity
Ministry of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia (2018), located at the Library Discussion Room of the Ministry of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia, PSPK for the second time held an open discussion with a number of stakeholders through Beranda PSPSK. Responding to the issue of the education zonation system, which has been present in several news lately, this time the Beranda PSPK raised the topic “School zonation and Equal Education Opportunity”. Beranda Volume XIV was attended by two keynote speakers, which were Catharina M. Girsang S. H., S. E., M. H. (Expert Staff of Education and Culture Regulation Division, Ministry of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia) and Nisa Felicia, Ph.D. (PSPK Researcher and Sampoerna University Lecturer). Elin Driana, Ph. D. (PSPK Researcher and Universitas Muhammadiyah Prof Dr. Hamka Lecturer) moderated the discussion which took place in a participatory manner.
Nisa Felicia, Ph. D. opened the discussion with a presentation regarding the school zonation system with a theoretical approach. If we return to the essence/core of equal distribution and/or equity, the service offered by the education institution must adapt with student’s various needs. This matter is important because if the equal distribution runs as expected, students will have an opportunity to optimize their potential. From a system perspective, this will push the improvement of student’s learning outcome quality to be relatively equal.
In the relation to zoning system, policy maker and society paradigm contributes to reach the end goal which is an equal distribution. In practice, the reduction of ‘favorite school’ label which perceived as market place, becomes an important indicator of success regarding the effort to achieve an equal distribution.
The notion was also agreed by Catharina M. Girsang S. H., S. E., M. H that addressed the abolition of ‘favorite school’ status is one of the objectives from the education zonation system. Education zonation system based on Law Ministry of Education and Culture Regulation No. 14/2018 regarding new student admission (PPDB), which explains that distance is the first priority of new student admission.
Besides distance, several other aspects were considered as priority in new student admission. Generally, the PPDB order is: 1) Distance; 2) Exam result; and 3) Specific achievement (specifically for elementary school, age is a top priority, and for vocational schools distance is not a priority). In practice, different interpretation in each region regarding the priority proportion and implementation technicality also contributes certain consequences.
Several of the consequences disadvantage several stakeholders, especially students as service recipients. As explained by Septiana Dewi, one of the parent’s representatives. She explained that her child wasn’t accepted in six public schools because ‘not close enough’ compared to other students. Even though in her opinion the distance to school is considered close, less than 1,5 km.
Abduh, one of the participants in the discussion addressed the urgency to consider a combination between school zonation and achievement, where each will contribute separate points. Catharina M. Girsang S. H., S. E., M. H. responded by saying that this could be considered as a final option not the primary option. The emphasis of this policy is considering distance as a priority, therefore the education departments must be able to analyze the education map in their region. If this is taken into action, each region’s perception of distance would obviously vary, therefore the proportion of student admissions remains at the priorities set by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Besides that, the interpretation of achievement must also be certain, for example olimpiade not report card scores. Transparency of student admissions is also important, parents must know the school zonation path, achievement path, and transfer (out of zone) path, and also the presentation of each path. The achievement path is prioritized for students out of the zone, therefore the allocated proportion (5%) is considered small, because the assumption is only parents who are financially capable can put their children to faraway schools and must also cover a large cost.
Nisa Felicia, Ph. D. addressed the same concern, each region must understand why the proportion is important. A 20% priority for students with family background under poverty (included in the 90% school zonation system) maybe is because the proportion of students with such characteristics are dominant. While in other regions such as sub-urban regions the proportions might differ. Besides that, if we enlarge the proportion of 5% then the disparity would still occur.
Nisa Felicia, Ph. D. also presented the result of her study through PISA data analysis. She elaborated that there is a significant student performance achievement gap among schools. One of the gap contributing factors is socio economic status, where schools that are dominated by students with a middle-upper economy background are higher than schools that are dominated with students from a lower-middle economy background. Which means, if children are given a chance to be in the same school, then it increases the probability to continue to improve their potential, therefore there would be an increase of the equal spread of graduate’s quality. Nisa also addressed that the school index usage in universities should also be abolished. In fact, children from favorite schools should still strive to reach their best achievement.
School zonation system requires coordination from several stakeholders and follow up policies. This was also expressed by Catharina as Expert Staff of Education and Culture Regulation Division, Ministry of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia, that PPDB policy is one of the other policy series such as PPK (Strengthening Character Education), teacher workload regulation, and so on.
From a larger perspective, implementation of school zonation system reminds us of Trisentra of Education (Three Core of Education) Ki Hadjar Dewantara, because schools as education institutions have an opportunity to collaborate with other surrounding institutions, including other schools, society, and other societal organizations, because students that attend certain schools are children from the nearby neighborhood. This shift of paradigm can become a tipping point in the success of establishing equally qualified educational opportunities in Indonesia
