MADRASAH Part 4

THE POTENTIAL OF PUBLIC-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP IN MADRASAH EDUCATION FOR ACHIEVING UNYBE AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION

IV.1 Contribution of Madrasahs in Providing Access to Basic Education
As described in the previous chapter, since the government of Indonesia issued the Six Year Universal Basic Education in 1974, and later Nine Year Universal Basic Education (UNYBE) in 1994, Indonesia has rapidly expanded enrolments and schools infrastructure. The Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) of primary schools (SD and MI) was achieved to 94 percent by 1998/1999; with gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 115 percent. In line with that achievement, Indonesia government was also successful in family planning program, which result in the decreasing number of children at the cohort of 7 to 12 years old. Therefore, the need of providing primary education facilities is no longer perceived as the main issue, for the provision of service is already adequate at primary level.
However, at the junior secondary level, Indonesia is still struggling in universalizing enrolments and providing schools infrastructure. The gap between the number of children in the age group of 13-15 with the number of enrolment at the JSS level is still big. The NER of JSS in 1998/1999 was only 48.6 percent with GER of 66.2 percent (Towards Nine Year Basic Education in Indonesia, MOEC, 1994). At this rate, Indonesia is behind some of its neighbors and has a long way to go to achieve universal basic education. At JS level, enrolment rate in Malaysia was 83 percent in 1999, the Philippines 79 percent in 1993 (GER), and Thailand 63 percent 1994.
The World Bank under his study on education under crisis (1998) found out that the role of private junior secondary school including madrasahs is very significant in helping government universalize nine-year basic education. Therefore, the facts that enrolment rate at the JSS level is low and the role of private sector in universalizing basic education is significant, have brought a need to strengthen the role of MTs in achieving government targets to universalize nine-year basic education.

IV.2 Analysis of Enrolment Growth Rate in MTs as Compared to General Secondary Schools under MONE During 1990’s
At present, MTs enroll about 18.35 percent of the total national enrolment at JSS level, of whom about 54 percent are females as compared to 46 percent females enrolment in SMPs. About 10.5 percent of total enrolment of Madrasah Tsanawiyah education are enrolled in private MTs, while remaining 27 percent are enrolled in public MTs. Most of private MTs are located in rural and under-served urban areas. The government inputs to private MTs are insignificant. Most of their finances come from students fees, and community donations. A few (generally one or two) MORA religious teachers, and rarely one or two MONE teachers of non-religious subjects are seconded to private MTs, while about 95 percent of their teachers are part-time or non-regular.
A large number of private MTs are also located in pesantrens (religious boarding schools) and enroll students mostly from rural farmer and other lower or lower middle income families. Some of the middle income families also prefer to send their daughters to MTs instead of SMPs for religious reasons and ensuring better moral development. In localities where there is some fear of drug trafficking, many parents of middle/upper income level prefer to send their children to a good quality of MTs rather than SMP. Thus, MTs are playing valuable role in providing junior secondary education to children from low socio-economic strata, specially the female, mainly in the under-served rural areas and under-served urban areas.
MTs have great potential in sharing the efforts of MONE for achieving the target of UNYBE by out-reaching the rural and remote areas and attracting children from the religious minded and poorer families. The unit cost per student in MTs is much lower than the unit cost in SMPs, but often at the cost of quality. Therefore, substantial public inputs are required for their quality improvement in form of better qualified regular teachers of science, mathematics and English, science equipment, library books, teacher guides, laboratories, etc. the enrolment potential of MTs Education can be observed by comparing the trend of their enrolment as compared with that of SLTP/SMPS during the pre-crisis period of 1989-1993.

During 1989-1993, the enrolment of SLTP/SMP (under MONE) has declined at the rate of 1.6 percent per annum, while enrolment of MTs increased at the rate of 7.95 percent per annum. Demand for enrolment in madrasah education in general, and for MTs schooling in particular, has been increasing even further during the financial crisis years in Indonesia since 1997. Surprisingly, but not unexpectedly, the enrolment in MTs continued increasing during the crisis period, while the enrolment in public SMPs remained almost static but enrolment in private SMPs declined. The increase in MTs enrolment can be attributed to the fact that (i) they are more easily accessible because of their location closer to the communities, (ii) the cost of MTs schooling is lower than SMP costs, (iii) parents feels their children more secure in madrasahs than in other schools against the recent menaces of drug trafficking and other sources of adolescents delinquencies.
In addition to the regular MTs, there are about 2,000 pesantrens having some form of madrasahs education which combine general education and vocational/entrepreneurial training with the religious education. Most pesantrens also provide residential and boarding facilities at nominal cost, which are provided free at cost to homeless and extremely poor students. The contribution of most pesantrens is another additionally to universalization of nine-year basic education (UNYBE). They are also source of poverty alleviation and promoting sustainability for the poorest.
The above analysis is indicative of the fact that madrasahs are the educational institutions which are pre-dominantly source of support for the poor, the females, and people living in under-served and remote areas. They are community-based institutions run by community through yayasan or local religious leaders. The actual data on demand for madrasah education, their community-based location, support by the community and their moral standards show that MTs have great potential for achieving UNYBE as well as for creating a just and civic society at modest costs. However, to be fair to madrasah children, the policy makers should also see beyond the numbers and recognize the moral development aspects. They should provide resources for quality input such that the madrasah children can become competitive in the rapidly changing socio-economic and technological world. This will require allocation of equitable assistance to madrasahs at par with MONE schools from the government as well as from the international agencies without any bias. The principle of equity in access to basic education for all children (whether in schools or madrasahs) should be implemented in the true spirit and actuality.

IV.3 Potential of MTs in UNYBE and Poverty Alleviation
The long-term enrolment projections for junior secondary level, which were prepared by educational planning consultants in 1994-1995, based on the policy parameters of Repelita VI (Indonesian Sixth-Five Year Development Plan) and PJP II (Second 25 year Development Plan). These parameters were quite ambitious, and so were the enrolment projections. The projected enrolment target for year 2003 (end of Repelita VII) was 1,755 million for MTs and 7,827 million for SMPs. Now after five years, we note that, in actual achievement, the MTs have almost exceeded the target of 2003 much earlier (i.e. in 1999-2000), while the SMPs enrolment shows short-fall of about 0.263 million during the same period.