Period:
    2004-2008

Place:
    Jakarta, Brebes, Pekalongan (Central Java), Bitung (North Sulawesi), Serang, Pandeglang (Banten)

Outline:
This project was implemented with the aim of expanding more widely the resident and school type education reform whose achievement was confirmed in the pilot regency where a development research “regional education development support research” was conducted. Though Indonesia aims to achieve in 2008 the complete compliance to nine-year compulsory education (six years in elementary school and three years in junior high school), those enrolled in junior high school is still limited to 72 percent, affected in part by the Asian economic crisis in the latter half of the 1990s (estimation of 2000 by the national education ministry). At the same time, the government decentralized the entire administration in 2001 under which the junior high school education administration was transferred from the central to regional governments. But as it proceeded without sufficient preparation, the education budget allotted to each school was reduced by large amount and confusion in authority that rose among administrators, principles and teachers became an obstruction to school management. Based on these problems, education administration in the regions did not function appropriately.

Due to those situations, it is urgent to establish an effective regional education administration system so that the government of regencies can effectively tackle with the important issues, including filling the gap of junior high school enrollment among regions and improving the education content. Japan, thus far, supported the decentralization of education administration of Indonesia by conducting research on development, development and trial introduction of a resident and school oriented education reform model (so called REDIP) in order to answer flexibly the individual demand of each community and school based on the concept of “when it comes to where to put priority in education development, those in charge (residents and school) know best.” The specific characteristics of the REDIP model are: (1) establishment of junior high school development committee and (2) proposal method education project. As the result of introducing the said model to the pilot region, the interest of parents and community toward junior high school education greatly increased, which gave a significant impact on the aspect of both access and quality. The governments of regencies subject to development research which came to recognize the effectiveness of the REDIP model, are directed toward encompassing the said model into the local education administration to continue implementing and they are proceeding with securing the regency education budget. The central government (education ministry) also thinks highly of the above mentioned project as “an education support that suits very well with the current situation of Indonesia.”

However, for the education administrator of the regency to implement this model truly autonomously, it is necessary to further strengthen the administrative capabilities and the accumulation of experiences. At the same time, the places that became the subject of development research were only part of the regencies within Central Java and North Sulawesi provinces and that expanding the REDIP model regionally is the issue to work on in the future. To this end, this project is promoting: (1) the strengthening of planning and management capabilities of the regency education administrators at the site of the development research and (2) unfolding this model in other areas where junior high school enrollment is low.