A half-cooked school zoning policy: go or not go?

June seems to become the regular month of protest for Indonesian parents whose child is going to enter a new school because the registration period for new students begins in this month. This year is not exceptional. The Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia (Kemdikbud RI) reimplements its school enrollment zoning system policy this year based on the Ministerial Decree No. 51/2018 on New Student Admission (PPDB) 2019. The question is whether or not it is the right time to implement this policy.

Through the decree, the Minister of Education and Culture Muhajir Effendy obligates all public school, from elementary to senior high school, to accept at least 90 percent of students whose family register domiciled in the same zoning area as the school location[1]. He stated that the zoning system would reverse the disadvantageous culture that has been going on for decades, namely the public paradigm of favorite or non-favorite school. To date, the existence of ‘favorite school’ label has been the magnet and dreams of parents and students, which leads to the current disparity of educational quality.

Before the school zoning system implemented in 2016, the competition for the new student admissions has been so free that outstanding students, as well as rich student has concentrated only in favorite schools. While average or underprivileged students have no option but to enter schools with low-quality facilities. Through this policy, the Government demonstrates the intention to foster social justice by eliminating such discrimination in the educational system and providing equal opportunities for everyone to have the same facilities and quality of education.

Moreover, in terms of expenditure, this policy could alleviate the burden of parents because the distance between the school and the house becomes closer that it will reduce the daily mobilization cost of the students. However, the distance is not the only consideration in the selection process. None is automatically qualified as a student in a particular school just because of her or his house location is close­–student’s final test score (NEM) is also taken into account in the entry selection process.

Schools to Work Harder

This school zoning policy does not only affect students or prospective students but also affects the school administrators and teachers. Schools that have been labeled as favorite schools need to work harder with this new system. If they are filled mostly by the outstanding students this far, with the enactment of this zoning system policy, they must step out of the comfortable conditions in order to maintain its “well-known quality.” On the other hand, the society needs to be aware that a high-quality school is not a school that accepts students who have above-average grades then graduates them with a grade that is also above average, but a school that can boost its average students to be graduated with ​​remarkable grades. Meanwhile, non-favorite schools must also be able to improve the quality of their education to catch up with other schools, so that they can accommodate the smart students well. Thus, the improvement of teacher quality is required as well.

The Weaknesses of the System

Albeit the purpose of the school zoning system is well-intended, we have to admit that the system still has several weaknesses considering that not all schools are currently ready. The main reason for this unreadiness is the uneven distribution of the school facilities, and it hampers the effective implementation of the policy[2]. In consequence, the prospective students are forced only to enter school whose location is in the specified zone regardless of the students’ preference and the school’s quality.

Even the public can see that the development of facilities in several schools is much faster than some other schools. The reason is not merely because of the school administrators are reluctant to improve its education quality, but because of financial resources lacking instead. Hitherto, the amount of school operational assistance funds (BOS) allocated to each school is determined by how many students the school has[3] which means favorite schools will undoubtedly get a more significant allocation of funds, in contrast to non-favorite schools where the students are not much. In addition, other sources of funds the schools relied on are based on the school achievements and accreditation, as well as from the parents’ donations which indicates that favorite schools will also get more benefits from this premise.

Conclusion

In summary, the school zoning system policy that has been in place for the past three years is still half-cooked. The zoning system is, in fact, a breakthrough in Indonesia educational development. However, the Government, unfortunately, implemented it at the wrong time. We can indeed neither judge the success nor failure of the zoning system in two or three years of implementation. The school zoning system is a long-term implementation considering Indonesia’s vast area and large population. Nevertheless, up until now, the zoning system has not been supported yet by the equitable quality of infrastructure, facilities, and teaching workforces. Hence, it was unsurprising if the public were cynical about this zoning system so that the objection from several groups of people were natural. Nonetheless, reckoning that this school zoning system is a stepping stone on its way to further development in the educational sector, it will be an irony if such progressive policy ends in vain.

That being said, the Government shall, at least, executes these two possible solutions. First and foremost, the Government must equip the school zoning policy with the efforts in equalizing the quality of school facilities in every region with the same or comparable standard.  Further, to invoke the system effectively, the local governments must also issue a regional regulation in accordance with Permendikbud No. 51/2018 regarding PPDB in general and equitable distribution of school infrastructure and facility in particular. Second, in this case, besides regular teacher’s training and education, the Government can also rotating teacher’s working placement to equalize the quality of the teaching workforce. This program enables information exchanges among teachers regarding effective teaching methods.

When the Government enforces the regulation properly, and every school’s facility and educators has even quality, the society is unlikely to refuse the school zoning system policy.

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[1] Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia, “Three PPDB 2019 pathways: zoning, achievement, domicile transfer” (June 14, 2019, accessed from https://www.kemdikbud.go.id/main/blog/2019/06/tiga-jalur-ppdb-2019-zonasi-prestasi-perpindahan-orang-tua on June 26, 2019.

[2] Ombudsman RI, “The zoning system rejection due to uneven distribution of school quality and facility” (20 Juni 2019), Ombudsman RI, accessed from https://ombudsman.go.id/pengumuman/r/ombudsman-sistem-zonasi-ditolak-karena-fasilitas-dan-mutu-sekolah-belum-merata on June 26, 2019.

[3] Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia, “Minister Decree No. 3/2019 on Regular School Assistance Funds Technical Guidelines” (MoEC, 2019), accessed from https://jdih.kemdikbud.go.id/arsip/Abstrak%20Permendikbud%20Nomor%203%20Tahun%202019.pdf on June 26, 2019.