Kalimantan schoolchildren practice honesty

Warief Djajanto Basorie ,  Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan   |  Fri, 05/02/2008 1:45 PM  |  Focus

Nabilla Syahvalensi, 11, buys her eraser, drawing book and ballpoint pen from her school's honesty stall. An eraser costs Rp 800 (9 US cents), a drawing book Rp 2,000 and a pen Rp 1,500.

The sixth-grader at state primary school SDN 4 Menteng in Palangkaraya writes down, in large letters, her name, the items she bought, the price per item and the total cost. She places the exact amount in a green plastic basket that has a cover. No one is minding the stall in the room next to the teachers' common room.

What do you learn from using the honesty stall? "I learn to be behave honestly all the time," replies the bright-faced girl, daughter of a city legislator in the provincial capital of Central Kalimantan.

At the end of each day, a teacher in charge sums up the sales and locks up the money in a safety deposit box. The stall keeps prices lower than those in commercial shops. The school does not seek profits but honesty, explains Dinae A. Angin, the principal of SDN 4.

"We opened this stall to instill honesty in our school children," declares Ibu Dinae, a teacher with 30 years' experience.

It all started as a solution to the small amounts of money frequently found on the school's grounds. The pupils would report their findings to their teacher. The school principal and teachers then decided to set up an honesty box made of see-through glass for children to put any found money in. After a certain period, the money collected would be used for something in the school, decided by the teachers.

In August 2007, the then deputy chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) visited the school. After seeing the honesty box, he suggested the school start an honesty stall. He donated Rp 100,000 and the school matched the amount. The Rp 200,000 was used for starting capital to buy the items for sale.

The honesty stall is one activity in SDN 4's school-based management program (SBM) that provides autonomy to schools in conducting certain affairs. This is in line with the decentralization of government from the center to the regions. Other SBM activities include curricular development, sourcing materials and drafting the school budget.

The latest budget of Rp 60,452,000 for the half-year period July-December 2007 is posted on the wall of the school head's office. It details items such as school material purchases, costs of student activities, the cost of learning evaluations and the cost of school maintenance.

The funding comes from the school operational fund (BOS) provision from the state budget released by the National Education Ministry. The government started the BOS cash transfer to schools in July 2005 to help reduce the impact of rising fuel prices after the government removed substantial subsidies to oil-based fuels that year. The school is entitled to Rp 20,500 per month for each of its 471 children. It receives the BOS funds from the BRI state bank in quarterly installments, but usually 2 months late. The school also has a separate routine budget from the city education office.

Dinae says the school budget is transparent. Anyone, particularly parents, can examine it. She said the school principal did the initial draft and it was then reviewed in a teachers meeting to discuss priorities. The students' parents in the parent-teacher association are not involved in the drafting, however they get a report on the budget and school activities when they come for their child's report card. No parent has ever objected to the budget and some have even volunteered donations, the school chief says.

When the school needs funds for an activity or renovation, the school solicits them. "The donations are not obligatory but parents often contribute more than we need. The surplus money is then kept as a cash reserve," says Dinae. SDN 4 is on Palangkaraya's leafy Thamrin thoroughfare in the subdistrict of Menteng, one of Jakarta's most affluent areas.

School management is one of three components in the pioneering Creative Learning Communities for Children concept. The Education Ministry introduced this approach in 1999 to develop a model to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at primary schools.

The two other components are community participation and active, joyful and effective learning. SBM leads to open management. Community participation is reflected in the willingness of parents to bring their thoughts in the school committee and pitch in with donations.

On active learning, teachers apply student-centered learning practices. Twelve-year-old Yantia Hariesta Purnomo says she likes studying IPA (natural sciences). Asked how her teacher delivers the subject, Yantia says the teacher carefully explains concepts and processes using teaching aids. "The teacher asks us if we have not understood something, like in mechanics, the movement of a wheel on its axis. If not, then the teacher explains more slowly," says Yantia, whose mother is a dentist.

To help slower children, one teacher puts them in a group with faster learners for joint problem-solving exercises. "I encourage the children to ask questions. I tell them it's better to ask a question in a wrong way than not to ask any question at all," says Setiawati, the mathematics teacher for grades four to six.

Since 1999, the school-based management program has spread to more than 2,500 schools in 42 regencies and cities in 11 provinces in Java, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua. The Education Ministry's directorate for kindergarten and primary school development has not officially placed Kalimantan for SBM programming. But it has invited select teachers from throughout Indonesia to introductory SBM workshops.

SDN 4 teachers, including Dinae, have attended two such workshops: one in Malang in 2003 and another later in Jakarta. The school did not wait for instructions from a higher authority to start the program. Using its autonomy, it took the initiative.

Asked how the SBM program will develop in the next five years, the principal said she wanted all school teachers to be independent in their teaching-learning capacity. "I want the teachers to improve their competence. But the measure of how good the teachers are will ultimately be measured by how good their students become," Dinae exclaimed.

The writer is a freelance writer based in Jakarta. He can be reached at wariefdj@yahoo.com.

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