4th International Language and Education Conference Bangkok, 6-8 November, 2013

➢ 1898: Indonesia colonised by Dutch ➢ 1949: Indonesia became independent but

West Papua remained under Dutch control. The Dutch began preparing them for independence.

➢ 1961: The people of West Papua declared independence and raised a new flag: The Morning Star.

➢ End of 1961: Dream for independence shattered by Indonesian military invasion.

➢ 1969: UN agreed to a plebiscite for locals to vote between independence or remaining part of Indonesia. Military hand-picked 1026 “representatives” to vote (their lives were threatened if they voted against Indonesia). All 1026 voted to remain with Indonesia.

(http://freewestpapua.org/info/history)

➢ The Dutch advocated an anthropological approach which focused on using knowledge within the Papuan context, inclusive of fishing, farming, and motor mechanics. ➢ After the Dutch left, the Indonesian government enforced a national model of education with the goal of “national unity” and the enforcement of “universal implementation in a complete and totally integrated manner”. This was intended to protect against fragmentation of a linguistically and culturally diverse and sparse Indonesian population. ➢ Currently, the general curriculum in Indonesian elementary schools consists of: Citizenship education; religious education; Indonesian language; mathematics; natural sciences; social sciences; art; physical and health education; English language and local content (a number of assorted subjects).

(www.indonesianembassy.org.uk)

(Statistik Kesejahteraan Rakyat Provinsi Papua, 2005 and Wulandari and Soesman, 2010)

●Average schooling in rural areas (2-4 years) is generally lower than urban areas (6-10 years)

●The percentage of population who received no schooling or less than primary is 51% in rural areas and only 6.1% in urban

POPULATION AGED 5 YEARS AND OVER BY EDUATIONAL ATTAINMENT

➢ 1997: President Soeharto resigned to be replaced by B.J. Habibie. ➢ A good amount of administrative power including that for education was

moved away from Java into the hands of provincial and district government. This gave full authority to schools for the recruitment of students, planning, implementation of teaching activities, design of curriculum, management of teaching staff, and financial management.

➢ 2002: SBM (School Boards of Management) were introduced by the

central government (Decree no.44/2002). These consisted of a school committee responsible for facilitating community aspirations and evaluating school policy, programs, and expenditures and/or an education council who co-ordinated all schools in a district.

● With decentralisation of authority and administrative power came a decentralisation of fiscal responsibility for funding elementary education. ● However, natural resources and tax bases are not equal amongst Papuan regions, therefore quality of education provisions in each local region directly relates to

capabilities to raise regional revenue. (Wulandari & Drenthem, 2010, p. 19)

● SOA (School Operational Assistance Funds) are given from the central government to district government and a proportion directly to schools. Despite schools directly receiving a proportion, Mollet (2007, p.160) claims corruption and collusion have occurred in the process of decentralisation in West Papua.

● There is not a solid understanding amongst many local parents that

local languages are in fact valuable and viable as languages for educational instruction and content teaching. Some are unwilling to be involved with any of the goings on of education because they see education as the role of the state.

● Many local parents have no understanding of the correlation between

instruction in the mother tongue in the initial years and greater educational success in following years. Therefore they cannot understand the advantages of their child learning in the mother tongue when secondary school and university study are carried out in Bahasa Indonesia or English.

Low commitment of available teachers Working in remote regions isn’t attractive to good teachers because: • it often means having to learn a new language and culture; • housing/health/transport facilities are insufficient; • no or low allowances for working remote; • school conditions and education equipment and materials are often lacking; • travelling time needed to collect salaries, which are often paid late; • relatively few provisions have been made to train teachers to adapt to linguistic and cultural minorities. Old textbooks and teacher-centered methods are used. (Wulandari & Drenthem, 2010, p. 6)

Changes to national education law brought watershed changes for the possibility of MLE

● Law 20/2003 Article 36 states that: The curriculum at all educational levels shall be developed according to principles of diversification, units of education and local learners' potential, intellect and interests and the diversity of the region and the environment.

(unesco.org/upload/Indonesia Education Act, 2003)

● West Papuan Provincial Decree No.5/2006 Article 29 provides

possibilities to adjust the curriculum and use local languages to respond to the local situation. Article 37 stipulates that there should be instruction from the district head to use the local language in the first years of education.

(Wulandari & Drenthem, 2010, p.11)

Examples of constructed curriculum since 2006: ● schools must include HIV/AIDS prevention in the curricula as AIDS prevalence is above national average; ● contextualised Indonesian language lessons to be used in the Sarmi district.

Local education consultants advocate that a multidisciplinary team including government officials develop a curriculum framework where there is room for the local languages, history, geography and culture of West Papua to help raise the identity and self esteem of the children. It is believed this will make school more enjoyable and successful for children and subjects such as nutrition, agriculture and fisheries would relate to their local situation and benefit the development of the region. (Wulandari & Drenthem, 2010 p. 34)

● Although Provincial decree No.5/2006 provides possibilities to respond to specific needs of children in the local context, few steps have been taken so far and no funds have been secured to provide a contextualised curriculum or to use the local languages in the first years of education.

(Faith based network on West Papua, 2010 p. 11)

● Teacher institutions have historically insufficiently trained teachers to develop or assess a contextualised curriculum. It is suggested such a curriculum needs to be developed by a team consisting of education practitioners and qualified curriculum developers and teachers must then be intensively trained to implement and use participatory student centred learning methods.

(Wulandari & Drenthem, 2010 p. 33)

● Parents must be convinced that the government allows a contextualised curriculum using the local language and that this will enhance the development of their children's education.

● 2005: In seeking to combat the reality of the teacher shortage in remote

areas and insufficient training for teachers, the Papuan Government established a teacher education senior high school called Kolese Pendidikan Guru (KPG).

● These colleges are different to other training facilities as they focus on training teachers to specifically teach in remote and rural areas with linguistic and cultural minorities.

● 4th July 2013: A persuasive document was sent from the Head of Education for Papuan Province (Elias Wonda) to the head Indonesian body for planning and development of the Papuan Province (BAPPEDA ). ● The document makes full acknowledgement of low educational results in rural and remote areas, argues that remote students deserve an education of equal quality to students in urban areas and that education in remote areas does not currently empower students or communities.

● The document promotes the need for model small schools (Years 1-3) which use the mother tongue (for teaching instruction and academic content) and integrate traditional community values and practices. It also notes the essential nature of the creation of regulations and policy to support the implementation and evaluation of the above school models.

(Kepala Dinas Education, 2013 p .1)

ISSUES

AIMS GOALS PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

POLICY DIRECTION ACTIVITIES

Lack of availability of early education small schools in remote areas

Increase the availability of community integrated traditional schools

Increase participation of students 0-9 in low enrolement districts

Proportion of teachers with qualification D5 in traditional community integrated education

To develop a model of a community integrated small school (grades 1-3) using the mother tongue

Facilitate provision of infrastructure, teachers and tutors, and school costs

Students age 0-9 are more easily able to comprehend study process in mother tongue

Integrate the mother tongue as a tool of communication in study and play for students 0-9

Increase readiness of students 0-9 to enter further education

Proportion of early childhood education and small elementary schools in remote areas

Increase the roles of traditional communities in development of integrated education

Study and mapping of an integrated curriculum; procurement of books and equipment

Low level of income of traditional families

Increase the inclusion of community integrated educational development in traditional communities

Increase the participation of local traditional communities in education development

Average of scores of students in Year 2 in small schools concerning reading, writing, and counting in mother tongue

Increase percentage of teacher attendance in classroom

Comparison study of a development curriculum

Lack of information and communication in remote communities

Proportion of community participation in process of organising education

Empower the local communities in their capacity to be involved in integrated education

Low level of commitment and consistency from local governments in formulating, planning, implementing, and evaluating educational development policy

Increased performance in the governance of educational development at provincial, district, and school levels.

Percetage of absent teachers

Increased teacher discipline

Low level of education and understanding of traditional communities

Research and development plan commissioned by the Asian Development Bank, 2013.

Asian Development Bank. 2013. “Plan of development for education in Papua Province 2013-2018”. Asian Development Bank, West Papua. Asian Development Bank. 2013. “Strategies for the education sector”. Asian Development Bank, West Papua. Bayhaqi, A. 2004, “Decentralisation in Indonesia: The possible impact on education and human resource development for local regions”. Economics Faculty University of Indonesia. Head of Education, Youth and Sport Papua Province. 2013. “Strategies for the education sector”. Provincial Government of Papua, Papuan Province. Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in London United Kingdom. 2013. Viewed 25 September 2013, > http:www.indonesian embassy.org> Free West Papua Campaign. 2013. Viewed 24 September 2013, <http.www.freewestpapua.org.uk > Ministry of National Education. 2003. “Act of the Republic of Indonesia NO 20, Year 2003” on National Education System. Ministry of National Education, Jakarta. Mollet, J. 2007. “Educational investment in conflict areas in Indonesia: The case of West Papua Province”. Shannon Press Research. Statistik Kesejahteraan Rakyat Provinsi Papua 2005. Viewed September 25 2013 <htttp://bps.go.id> Wulandari D., and M. Drenthem. 2010. “Hand in Hand: Communities, children and teachers in Papua”. Justice and Peace Netherlands.