Self sufficiency in Krucil

Krucil is a sub-district located approximately 45 km from Probolinggo and 1000 m above sea level. For a sub-district which is far from the center of the city, Krucil sub district is classified as a below average area, where most of the residents are laborers or small traders. Most of them are from Madura.

By using ideas they received when they attended training sup-ported by the MBE, the Head of Krucil Education Branch Office, Bpk Ngadirin and his staff, developed a number of activities. They used local staff including teachers, principals, super-visors and even the Branch Head himself has been trained as a facilitator.

The development programs that have been planned and implemented include:

1. Training on RIPS (school plans) and RAPBS (school budgets) for all schools in the sub-districts.

2. Training on PAKEM and 2004 Curriculum Mapping for all teachers and principals.

3. Study visits to more advanced schools both inside and outside the sub-district.

4. Work experience program for teachers in more advanced schools both inside and outside the sub-district.

5. Program of assistance provided by supervisors and the branch office head to schools, teachers' and principals' working groups (KKG and KKSS).

6. Partnerships with business partners to increase the quality of learning.

The partnership with business parties is to provide a further source of learning for students. There are at least 3 businessman in Krucil who are happy to become resources for learning and guest speakers for students.

The Rise of MI Trabiyatul Islam and MI NU, Kraksaan

MI Nahdlatatul Ulama and MI Tarbiyatul Islam in Kraksaan (both MBE target schools) initiated a revitalization program for madrasahs in Kraksaan by disseminating ideas they received during training from MBE. Field observations showed that the changes that took place at MI NU and MI Tarbiyatul Islam after they joined MBE were very significant compared to pre-MBE.

The district facilitators provided support programs at MI and provided additional assistance for the teachers and the principal. This increased the competency of students, teachers and the principal. One of the interesting activities at MI Tarbiyatul Islam is a "reflecting together" activity.

Learning activities are recorded by a video camera. After the lesson is completed, the teachers and students watch the recording together and make their observations. In this way the lesson can be easily analyzed and improved.

Another benefit is that students are able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their performance during the lesson. By reflecting together issues that frequently arose were:

1. What strategies should be employed by the teacher in order to make the students more active, taking into account the variations in student ability?

2. How can obstacles faced by teachers in providing learning materials be easily overcome?

Another consequence is that students identify their weaknesses and students who afraid to communicate before (mostly silent) start to have the courage to initiate discussion and express their thoughts during the discussion. Students who were passive become more active.

Meeting of the Principals, Supervisors and Branch Head

During the break period at the MBE training of the target SD/MIs in Krucil sub-district, the principals, supervisors and the Branch Head held a meeting to discuss their own topics. This meeting was facilitated by Bpk Suyitno, who is the principal of SD Ngepung at Sukapura. A number of topics were discussed including:

• How can principals increase the quality of teachers and students?

• How the role of the community roles can be improved?

• How can target school principals work together more effectively?

• How can dissemination be achieved more effectively and efficiently?

• How can the quality of learning in schools be enhanced?

At that meeting each principal realized just how important their position is in developing the quality of education at their institution.

Cooperation between the principals provides a significant contribution to quality en-hancement. The oppor-tunities to create partner-ships with businesses and the sub-district government were also addressed.

A most interesting point that emerged from the meeting was the enthusiasm of the non-MBE schools (SD Betek 3 and SD Krucil 1). They believe that the activities conducted by the MBE target schools was the solution to increasing education quality. So that is why they sent teachers to the training held by the MBE target schools.