Suara Pembaruan, page 16
At an event attended by some 400 teachers and headmasters at the Education Quality Assurance Agency (LPMP) in Bengkulu Province, on Sunday (14/5), Mendikbud Muhadjir Effendy said that Kemendikbud will implement reform for equalization in order to upgrade education in Indonesia. Such reform can be implemented in a number of ways: zoning system for new student admissions, regulation that teachers should be at school for eight hours per day, and addition of a free day so that school activities only cover five days.
Mendikbud explained that the regulation requiring teachers to be at school for eight hours a day was intended to prevent them from seeking teaching-hours at other schools. The application of eight hours at school leads to a teaching-learning process in which students are more active. This refers to study in class of around three hours, and the remaining five hours spent in actively studying outside the classroom.
Meanwhile, it is not compulsory to add a free day, because Saturdays can still be filled with extracurricular activities, just as long as these don’t involve studying in the classroom.
For its part, the zoning system is intended to prevent numerous parents from targeting schools of excellence or favored schools for their children as well as force them to go to schools outside the zoning area. At present, there are schools with excess and those lacking student numbers, all in the same area. The zoning system will also assist teachers in being able to meet their teaching responsibilities. In this way, no school will operate the learning system of separate morning and evening classes. For their part, local governments (pemda) must be able to support the construction of new classrooms or even schools should there be a lack of places to study.
