final report research project on madrasah in indonesia

FINAL REPORT RESEARCH PROJECT ON MADRASAH IN INDONESIA | 2012-2014

Final Report Research Project on Madrasah in Indonesia

Study at Bandung Barat Regency and Kendal Regency

Compiled by :

Bandung Institute of Governance Studies

December 2014


Content

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction 2.1 Background (the setting and context of the project) 2.2 Summary of project objectives 2.3 Summary of overall process and major activities

3. Major accomplishments

4. Major challenges and developed solutions

5. Learning

5.1 Knowledge gained from implementing the project and how learning will be applied to future work.

5.2 Lessons fromimplementing three different tools on one issue

6. Sustainability

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1. Executive Summary In this project, BIGS conducted resesarch on Madrasah within 3 years from 2012-2014. Focus of this research are (1) School Operational Fund’s (BOS) evaluation programme, (2) assessment of madrasah’s services by the students and (3) social audit towards the role of government in developing madrasah. The aims of the research are to Identify and analyze problems faced by madrasah, particularly madrasah tsanawiah, which make its service quality low and finding solutions in form of alternative policy to improve mandrasah’s condition and service quality. The acomplishments of this reseach such as the establishment of cooperation with the Ministry of Religion, improvement in School Operational Fund (BOS) supervision, commitment of Ministry of Religion to increase Grant for provinces with many madrasah, and commitment from Municipal Parliament to include madrasah in local goverment budget. However, this research met challenge in the interaction with the government in building cooperation and awareness to convince them the important of developing madrasah, furthermore that this research has practical use. Nonetheless, this reseach noted lesson learnt such that partnering with government is a good choice for making change. In addition, cooperating with local people can help in field data collection process. Other than that, research results become more qualified by using three tools (PETS, CRC and Social Audit). Last but not least, these three tools allow deeper tracking of the problems. In conducting the research, BIGS collaborated with several teachers’ organisation such as Association of Madrasah’s Teacher (Persatuan Guru Madrasah/(PGM) and Association of Temporrary Teacher (Persatuan Guru Honorer), civil society that manage madrasah such as Nahdatul Ulama (NU) and Muhamadiyah. This collaboration is aimed to guard the consistency of this advocacy particularly in regards to pollicy’s recommendation as the the result of this research.

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2. Introduction

2.1. Background

In Building Bridges for Better Spending in Southeast Asia program, BIGS conducted research project on Madrasah Education in Indonesia, particularly Madrasah Tsanawiah. This project is implemented in two areas, namely West Bandung District (in West Java Province) and Kendal District (in Central Java Province). Madrasah theme is addressed because this education institution lacks attention from central and local government, although it has high population of students. In 2013, the number of madrasah students is 8.08 millions. About 34.4 % of them are from the poor.1 This project uses three tools, namely, Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS), Citizen Report Card (CRC) and Social Audit. These three approaches are used to analyze basic problems faced by madrasah and to find the solution. These three tools are implemented for three years, from 2012 - 2014. In the first year (2012), PETS is used to track fund flow of School Operational Aid (BOS), a program for aiding madrasah’s operational costs. CRC was used in the second year (2013) to assess madrasah’s service, and Social Audit (2014) was used in the third year to assess the role of government in developing madrasah. This project seeks to map some problems faced by madrasah. The research project revealed the problem of madrasah lies on some issues: (1) minimum funds, (2) wrong perception of local government on madrasah institution, (3) weak coordination of Ministry of Religion and local government, and (4) lack of attention from local government. These problems cause weak service quality of madrasah and low interest of people to send their children to pursue education in madrasah. The above condition encourages BIGS to find solution for madrasah’s problems through this project. This research project seeks to give policy recommendations for central and local governments. 2.2. Summary of project objectives This project aims at:

1. Identifying and analyzing problems faced by madrasah, particularly madrasah tsanawiah, which make its service quality low.

2. Finding solutions in form of alternative solution to improve mandrasah’s condition and improve its service quality.

1. BPS Year 2013

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2.3. Summary of overall process and major activities Activity processes in this project can be described in the following table :

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Note:

Chart’s description attached.


Promoting Role of district-level Ministry of Religion in monitoring implementation of BOS Program in Madrasah BIGS’s research results on PETS tool are presented directly to Ministry of Religion of central and local levels. The research findings become basis for Ministry of Religion, particularly of province level, to improve monitoring on BOS fund utilization. Many madrasahs cannot use BOS fund properly yet. Therefore, Ministry of Religion conducts control to ensure that BOS fund is utilized in compliance with existing technical guidance.

In this project, we gain support from central-level Ministry of Religion, because Ministry of Religion feels that the research theme is relevant to their mission, particularly to Directorate of Madrasah. This makes us easier in conducting research and to present the results as inputs for improvement of policy on madrasah in the future.

Cooperation with Ministry of Religion is built

3. Major accomplishments Some accomplishments of this project are:

Picture 3: Article in Buletin Kementerian Agama Kabupaten Bandung Barat regarding the improvement of the use of School Operational Fund’s monitoring in Madrasah

Picture 1: BIGS’ research team delivering Madrasah Research’s Result to Head of Madrasah Division of Bandung Barat Regency

Picture 2: BIGS’ research team delivering Research’s result on PETS and CRC regarding Madrasah to Director of Madrasah of the Ministry of Religion Republic Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Phil. M. Nur Kholis Setiawan, M.A.

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Considering the research findings, Director of Madrasah of Ministry of Religion states to increase grant allocation for madrasahs. The commitment is expressed following BIGS submitting the research report. Ministry of Religion realizes that budget limitation causes madrasahs difficult to develop themselves. Therefore, budget allocation for madrasahs needs improvement, so that more madrasahs can receive aid.

Commitment of central-level Ministry of Religion to improve Grant for areas with high number of madrasahs

District-level local legislatives’ commitment to allocate Local Budget for Madrasah

Madrasahs can access Local Budget funds from dana kewilayahan (area-based grant) from every sub-district. The dana kewilayahan has not been optimized for aiding education institution yet. After BIGS conducted advocacy, local legislatives will encourage camat (head of sub-district) and village heads to allocate some of their dana kewilayahan to education institutions, including madrasahs. Also, Local BOS will be optimized. Disbursement of Local BOS is not regular yet always late; thus, local legislatives committed to encourage local governments to increase Local BOS allocation and ensure its timeliness.

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Picure 4 : BIGS with the Bandung Regency Parliamanet in delivering research result on Madrasah.

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This is the challenge at the beginning

of the project. In Indonesia, NGOs

are considered as organizations that

always criticize government policies.

It makes government uneasy to

perform its work. The most difficult

task of project team is to convince

government that this project will

help them in implementing their

programs. The cooperation needs to

be built, so that the project can give

recommendations for madrasah

development

Another important reason is to make field data collection easier. Therefore, project team conducted intensive communication and sought to gain support from government, such as through support letter.

4. Major challenges and developed solutions

Challenges in this project are:

Building cooperation with government

Picture 5 : BIGS delivering the reseearch’s result to h the Head of West Bandung Regency’s Education Office.

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Menumbuhkan kepedulian pemerintah agar mau membangun madrasah

Raising government’s awareness to build madrasah Convincing government, particularly local government, is not an easy task. The challenge is to make them understand that madrasahs are also their responsibility. All this time, local governments think madrasahs are Ministry of Religion’s responsibility. Moreover, Ministry of Home Affairs discourages Local Budget for aiding vertical instances. Madrasahs are considered vertical instances, whereas they are not –particularly the private ones- and should gain attention from local governments. The solution is conducting advocacy on the research to executives and legislatives at central and local levels.

Keterangan : Tim Peneliti BIGS Berdiskusi dengan Kepala Bidang SMP Dinas

Picture 6 : BIGS’ Program Manager delivering Policy Brief of research on Madrasah to the Director of Madrasah, Mnistry of Religion Republic Indonesia


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Convincing government that results of the research can be used and implemented Experience shows that sometimes research results are treated as merely inputs, while government has their own analysis and plans. Receiving research findings from research institution is merely procedure of complying with public participation principle. To prevent this from happening, we simplify the research results into policy brief, building alliance with madrasah teacher organizations, such as PGM (association of madrasah teachers) and Persatuan Guru Honorer (honorary teacher association). The alliance becomes important because BIGS has limited time in this program, and the alliance can control and encourage government’s performance in implementing the recommendations.


Sustainability

5. Learning Knowledge gained from implementing the project and learning will be applied to future work. Important learning from the project includes:

1. Partnering with government is a choice for making change. Partnering is carried out by covering government’s limitation in making change. NGOs present to give alternatives which can serve as inputs in policy-making.

Lessons from implementing three different tools on one issue

1. By using three tools (PETS, CRC and Social Audit), research results become more qualified. Results of PETS and CRC research can be confirmed directly to government in Social Audit forum. Therefore, policy recommendations are based on more accurate data/facts.

2. Using three different tools allows deeper tracking of the problems. Problems that are not yet addressed in the first tool may be researched in the subsequent tools.

6. Sustainability BIGS makes good relation with some mass organizations that protect madrasahs, such as Nahdatul Ulama and Muhamadiyah. Also, BIGS builds cooperation with some madrasah teacher organizations, such as PGM and Persatuan Guru Honorer. These organizations will carry on the advocacy and monitor policy recommendations produced by this project.

2. Cooperating with local people can help in field data collection process. In this project, BIGS recruited local researchers from research areas. This is proved to help observation activity, particularly interviews with research respondents.

Picture 8 : BIGS research team on discussion with madrasah’s teachers (Assocation of Madrasah’ Teacher) at Kendal Regency

Picture 7 : BIGS research team on discussion with madrasah’s teachers (Assocation of Madrasah’ Teacher) at Bandung Barat Regency

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ANEX 1 Summary of overall process and major activities

Initial activity Description Time

Meeting with Directorate

General of Islamic

Education

The initial activity is meeting with central

government; in this case, Directorate General

of Islamic Education. The objective is to

explain research plan and to ask support on

the research. From this meeting, BIGS gained

supporting letter for conducting research on

madrasah for three years.

June 2012

Meeting with Director of

Madrasah

Explaining in details the research, which

include topics to be researched, method to

use, research area, and asking baseline data on

condition of madrasah in Indonesia.

July 2012

Meeting with Ministry of

Religion of West Java

Province

Explaining the research to be conducted by

BIGS. This meeting explained that BIGS has

been granted agreement from Ministry of

Religion of central level on this research plan,

and the research’s benefits for improvement

of policy on local madrasah arrangement.

July 2012

PETS

Meeting with Ministry of

Religion of West

Bandung District and

Majalengka District

Presenting research plan on effectiveness and

efficiency of BOS program management,

informing research implementation time, and

number of MTs samples to be surveyed.

July 2012

Recruitment of Field

Researcher

Recruited researchers are from local people

whose profession is teacher. This is to make

field data collection easier.

July 2012

Training of Field

Researcher

Giving instruction to field researchers on

PETS research instrument, data collection

strategy, and reporting procedure.

July 2012

Field Research Field data collection August 2012 –

March 2013

FGD on research results Quantitative field findings will be cross-

checked qualitatively in FGD by inviting

stakeholders of madrasah. The objective of

this activity is to find more valid data.

March 2013

Dissemination of PETS

results

Results of PETS research are presented in

forum, which is organized by Ministry of

Religion of province level.

March 2013

CRC

Training of Field

Researcher

Giving instruction to field researchers on

CRC research instrument, data collection

strategy, and reporting procedure.

April 2013

Field Research Field data collection May 2013 –

October 2013


FGD on research results Quantitative field findings will be cross-

checked qualitatively in FGD by inviting

stakeholders of madrasah. The objective of

this activity is to find more valid data.

November 2013

Social Audit

Training of Field

Researcher

Giving explanation to field researchers on

preparations and activities to be carried out

before implementation of social audit

February 2014

Preparation of Social

Audit

Meeting madrasah stakeholders, which

include Ministry of Religion, Education

Service, Education Commission of district,

representatives of madrasah, school

committee, representatives of madrasah

foundation, parents, and organization of

madrasah teachers. The meeting is to explain

the plan, objectives and purpose of social

audit.

March 2014 –

June 2014

Implementation of Social

Audit

Social audit is implemented for one day in

two sites, namely West Bandung District and

Kendal District

June 2014

Advocacy of Research

Results

Presenting research results to central and local

governments. The research results are already

presented to Ministry of Religion of central,

district, and province level, and Education

Service of district level, and local legislatives

of district level.

October 2014 –

December 2014


Compiled by :

Bandung Institute of Governance Studies

December 2014

2014 FINAL REPORT RESEARCH PROJECT ON MADRASAH IN INDONESIA

final report research project on madrasah in indonesia

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