The Role of School Committee to Develop International Standard School

By:

Rosa Ardiyati (09301241032)

Regular Mathematic Eduacation 2009

Mathematics Education Major, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science

Yogyakarta State of University, 2012

Introduction

International Standard School or in Indonesian we call it Sekolah Berstandar Internasional (SBI) has been main topic now days. Why? This is one of government voice that made this topic become warmer. “I agree that SBI should be corrected. The substation of SBI now days does not contains international quality,” said Dedy Gumelar in one of the event with Ikatan Guru Indonesia (IGI).  Not only the government, but also the society should give their contributions in developing this big process. Some people think that the quality in some SBI is less than expected; moreover there is some people that object this idea. They said SBI is school for elite society, middle and lower class of society cannot afford some school like this. And this is only make a big gap between regular school and SBI, thus it can make social imbalance in society.

Then, have we ever thought who is responsible with this condition? Government? Principals? Teachers? School Committee? Or the whole society itself? The answer is all of those elements is responsible in developing SBI to be better school in quality.

First element is the government as the one who make the decisions of the educational system in Indonesia. We know that our country is full of diversity, so that the government has to make a standard education where all of school can fulfill it. The second is school committee, the school committee contains some elements as its member, and they are some teachers, education experts, student’s parents, and the community around the school. All of them united as a organization called school committee. The further explanations will be explained in the next sections.

School Committee

School committee is independent organization that is created to develop the educational quality by giving some advice, judgment, consideration, manpower, facilities, and evaluations in a certain education unit (school). The structure of school committee organization may different in one school to another, but the role and the function is similar. School needs society to be better, the school cannot develop well by only the work of teacher, principals, and Dinas Pendidikan. And the school committee is one of the best way to connect the society with school.

The purpose of school committee is:

1.      Coordinating the ideas and aspirations of society in operational policy and educational program in a school.

2.      Increasing the role and responsibilities of the society in educational implementations in school.

3.       Creating a transparent, accountable, and democratic condition in the implementation of education in school.

Then the role of school committee is:

1.      Advisory agency

The school committee gives some advices about educational policy.

2.      Supporting agency

The school committee supports the school through finance, thoughts, and manpower in the implementation of school education.

3.      Controlling agency

The school committee evaluates and controls the transparency and the accountability of school.

4.      Mediator

The school committee role’s is as the mediator of the society and the government.

            The connections between the school and the society might make some emotional connection between the school and society, so that the education process may be in harmony. There will be solid and continuous education because what society expects from the school is fulfilled. This is so important because in the end, the student will enter the society field.

            International Standard School (Sekolah Berstandar Internasional/ SBI)

The international standard school program is actually based on the willing to develop the school in creating learning situations and teaching learning process to form the purpose of national education, which is creating students that have faith and believe in God, good character, healthy, knowledgeable, creative, independent, and to be democratic citizen that have responsibility and international competence.

The last part of the national purpose of education leads the government to create the international standard school. The school that having right to declare that their school is an international standard school must fulfill some certain conditions. Moreover, the schools that have been clarified to be an international standard school must still maintain and develop their quality.

The requirement of international standard school such as the school facilities, schools, programs, the competence of the teacher, the school system service, and so on. This requirement must be fulfilled and maintained due to make a good international standard school.

            The Role of School Committee

One of the school committee’s role is supporting the school by facilities, finance, thoughts, and manpower in the implementation of school education. And we know that all of that supports are important. Without the supporting of school committee, the school might not be able to afford some facilities that is needed to develop their school into better international standard school. And this the role of school committee to support the school by providing facilities and finance to fulfill the requirement.

Thoughts and controls of schools committee are also needed in developing international standard schools. Without a good controls and ideas from the school committee which contains the ideas from the society, the SBI that the school try to develop will not be be sync with the society, especially the international society.

            Conclusion

The responsibility to develop international standard school in Indonesian belongs to every element in the educational society. The school committee is one of the elements. We cannot depend on only one element. Every element such as the government, principals, teacher, students, student’s parents, and the society include school committee must cooperate to created a better international standard school.