To prepare quality human resources, who can to face competition in the labor market, North Kalimantan is focusing on education in elementary schools. This was conveyed by the late H. Sudjati, S.H., the Regent of Bulungan for the period of 2016–2021, in his speech at the Indonesia Development Forum, Jakarta 2019. This was also mentioned in his speech during the webinar, “Greetings KKG: Bulungan’s Strategy for Implementing Learning during the Pandemic by using Emergency Curriculum” on Thursday, 19 November 2020.

 

The late Regent, Sudjati, presented his presentation titled “From the Basics: Three Strategies to Prevent Competition Gap in Labor Market.” The contents of this presentation present INOVASI’s strategy to prepare the quality of human resources for the future during the Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) in Jakarta, July 2019. The Regent of Bulungan was the only invited speaker from North Kalimantan to speak at the 2019 IDF. Documentation: INOVASI.

According to Sudjati, mastery of literacy skills is the key to building the twenty-first century generation. North Kalimantan develops literacy skills by focusing on all elementary students having the ability to read by the third grade at the latest. To achieve these targets, North Kalimantan formulated the following strategies: 1) To train and strengthen teacher competencies through Teacher Working Groups (Kelompok Kerja Guru, or KKG); (2) To provide non-text books in schools to foster a reading culture for students; and 3) To provide special services for students who are slow at reading (inclusion).

According to Sudjati, these three strategies are implemented in stages, starting at pilot programs or early grade literacy projects. This pilot program was carried out in seven elementary schools in Tanjung Selor and East Tanjung Palas districts.

Sudjati explained, “We chose schools with medium quality as the targets. This pilot program involved the best school principals, supervisors, and teachers as facilitators. For two years we have trained and assisted school principals, supervisors, and teachers to implement training materials. We monitored, recorded, and documented every change that occurs.”

After two years, North Kalimantan discovered positive impact from the pilot program. There was a significant increase in reading skills. In December 2017, only 57% of students passed the basic literacy competency test, but in August 2019, it rose to 94%. North Kalimantan succeeded in cutting the completion time for achieving basic literacy competencies from three years to just two years.

Because of the success of the pilot school, the strategies were distributed to all primary schools in Bulungan. In 2017, there were only seven elementary schools (SD), which increased to 145 elementary schools in 2019. During this dissemination, North Kalimantan also designed an effective and efficient training strategy, namely by optimizing the use of BOS (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah, or School Operational Assistance Funds), BOSDA (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah Daerah or Regional School Operational Assistance Funds), teacher certification allowances, corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, and the 2019 Regional Budget, or APBD, of IDR 450 million, as well as training 502 elementary school teachers for seven months for a total of 85 hours of training. These trained teachers are dispersed throughout the urban, rural, rural and coastal areas.

Regent Sudjati explained the three benefits of the success of early grade literacy program: 1) North Kalimantan can improve the reading skills of early grade students; 2) It can also improve teacher competency. KKG-based training certificates can help advance a teacher’s professional career. As a result of optimizing the role of the KKG to be a teacher workshop, many teachers and school principals have been able to move up the ranks from IVA to IVB. This certainly proves that the the training’s quality is already up to the standard of Bulungan Education and Culture Office (Disdikbud) and the North Kalimantan Education Quality Assurance Institute (Lembaga Penjamin Mutu Pendidikan, or LPMP). The implementation of KKG activities could positively contribute to improving a teacher’s career as part of the continuous professional development program; and 3) North Kalimantan has a system that improves the quality of learning through the Teacher Working Group (Kelompok Kerja Guru, or KKG). This system is the most important asset. Through this system, the quality of schools can be improved in cities, villages, inland, and coastal areas.

“The learning quality improvement system that is based on KKG is a system that I have long dreamt of. I’ve been looking for a model that fits the Bulungan context. It is a model that can make the quality of schools in rural, remote, and coastal areas not lower than the quality of schools in the urban areas. The quality gap in schools among regions has been our problem for many years,” said Sudjati.

The close collaboration between the Bulungan Education and Culture Office (Disdikbud) and INOVASI has made Sudjati’s dreams come true. In the end, North Kalimantan is able to have a KKG-based training model. This training model is not only effective in terms of methodology and implementation, but also efficient in terms of funding.

Sudjati continued, “As the Bulungan APBD continues to be reduced, we cannot facilitate trainings that require a large budget. Yet, thanks to the breakthrough from the Bulungan Disdikbud, we were able to design a quality training program that reaches many schools, and at low cost.”

 

Effective during the Pandemic

The developed KKG-based training model has proven to be effective during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the heavy infrastructure challenges that North Kalimantan faces, this KKG-based training model can be used to train school principals, supervisors, and teachers.

Although there are still many schools in North Kalimantan that don’t have electricity, network, and internet access, school principals, supervisors, and teachers have shown their resilience in dealing with this COVID-19 pandemic. They have been able to organize themselves for various trainings even though they have had to cross the sea, rivers, and marshes.

The Bulungan Disdikbud has also responded quickly to the issuance of an emergency curriculum or curriculum for special circumstances. In an emergency situation like the present, it is impossible for the teacher to teach all teaching materials as they did during normal times. There must be a reduction in learning materials so that the ongoing learning-from-home process can be truly effective.

The use of the emergency curriculum has given a lot of leeway to teachers to design learning according to the capacity of their students. Teachers are no longer required to teach difficult topics; therefore, they can really focus on helping children gain the most basic competencies, namely literacy, numeracy, and character.

Through the KKG-based training, North Kalimantan has helped teachers use the emergency curriculum. The KKG-based teacher training during the pandemic has used the emergency curriculum, and they are still using this in the six clusters out of the existing 26 clusters. Disdikbud can later disseminate the pilot program to all the other clusters in the second semester of the 2020/2021 academic year.

According to Sudjati, the use of the emergency curriculum has made children in North Kalimantan feel happier while they are learning from home. They are no longer burdened by plenty of difficult assignments. They are now more focused on training themselves to be skilled in using literacy, numeracy, and character competencies.

“I am optimistic that the good practice through the KKG-based training that has been developed since 2017 can continue in the future. This model must be maintained and used as Bulungan’s advantage in the education sector. Whoever will lead in the Bulungan Regency in the future, the education sector will remain a development priority,” said Sudjati.

Sudjati continue, “In the end, I would like to remind you that our main duty as administrators of government, parents, and society to our children is to make sure they have a future. This responsibility can only be fulfilled through quality education.”

 

Teacher representatives gave souvenirs in the form of caricatures to Regent Sudjati in the webinar, “Sapa KKG: Bulungan Strategies for Running Learning in the Pandemic Period with Emergency Curriculum” at the Bulungan Regent’s Office (19/11/2020). Since September 2020, Bulungan has mobilized the KKG to run Learning from Home program (BDR). Documentation: Diskominfo Bulungan.

*H. Sudjati, Regent of Bulungan for the period 2016-2021, passed away on 8 December 2020.