CENTRAL JAVA: MBE School Performance

In the past the performance of a school has often been linked to how many competitions it has won, the results of school leaving exams, the number of its graduates who entered the favorite schools in the area, the grandness of the school building, the teachers qualifications and so on.

These indicators became the criteria by which a successful school was measured and the favorite school was the one which attracted most pupils and won the most competitions. Schools achieving this performance received recognition from the wider community and the government as being a 'good' school. But these are not generally the indicators towards which the MBE partner schools are striving.

The performance of the school is rarely linked to student learning activities, the students' and teachers' creativity, the involvement of community members in teaching and learning and stakeholders in supervising school activities, a well organized library and school and the development of school facilities to support student learning.

But these are the sorts of things that MBE schools strive for, but which often do not get recognition from the wider community and government as making a 'good' school. A number of MBE partner schools are trying to get the best of both worlds. SD Ambalresmi 1 and 2 in Kebumen district have already proved their ability to achieve both kinds of success.

Their performance has received recognition from the community and the government as high achieving schools. These are some of the achievements of SD Ambalresmi 1 which is managed by Bpk Ristanto, assisted by Ibu Handayani: winner of the Central Java Provincial Chess Competition; third place in the Central Java Provincial Teacher Research Competition; winner of the General Knowledge Quiz, Poetry Reading, Poetry Writing, Worksheet Writing and Little Doctor Competitions for Kebumen district; second place in the Computer Creativity, Science, Outstanding Teacher and Creative Teacher Competitions for Kebumen district.

This sort of thing has also happened in other districts, such as Pati, where several of the outstanding teachers have come from the MBE partner schools and MBE district facilitators; Purworejo, where champion teachers have also come from the facilitators and partner schools; Sukoharjo, where a madrasah is representing Central Java in a Healthy School Competition; and Semarang, where the best performing students have come from MBE schools.

MBE Schools in Jakarta Make Further Progress

Seven schools in Central Jakarta have been assisted by MBE and DBE since the beginning of 2006. The visit of the US Secretary of State to MI Al Ma'Muriyah was reported in a previous edition of Suara MBE. Here are some stories and pictures from a number of other partner schools.

At SDN Joharbaru 29 PAKEM is being implemented regularly, and the children's creativity is developing quickly (gambar 1). The class displays show the development of PAKEM. The community helped make the display boards. They have also constructed an outdoor meeting hall (photo 2), which was officially opened by the Subdistrict Head. The construction was managed by one of the parents. Rp.46 million was raised from the local community.

At MI Al Fallah, which has 132 students, classroom activities continue to improve. They also have classroom displays (photo 3). At SDN Kebon Sirih 01 PAKEM is already used and there are displays in every class (photo 4). At SDN Cikini 01 SDN Cikini 01 the RAMSAR games (from AQUA) using dice and a snakes and ladders type of board have been used in social studies lessons (photo 5).

PURBALINGGA: PAKEM Spreads in Partner Subdistricts

In order to satisfy demands from primary school (SD and MI) teachers in the MBE Subdistricts, Purbalingga and Karanganyar, to learn about PAKEM, training was held for all the non MBE primary schools in these subdistricts. The training took place for a period of three days in each Subdistrict from 19 - 24 July 2006.

There were 203 participants in Purbalingga Sub-district from all public and private non MBE primary schools, while in Karanganyar Subdistrict there were 294 participants.

This dissemination training was opened by the Head of the Purbalingga District Education Office. It was part of the cooperation between MBE and the Purbalingga and Karanganyar Subdistrict education offices and was financed by the schools themselves.