Creating Learning Communities for Children in Polman District, West Sulawesi Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Decentralization paved the way for the Creating Learning Communities for Children (CLCC) program designed by UNICEF, UNESCO, and the Indonesian Department of Education in 1999, which aims to improve primary school education quality. CLCC’s school-based management (SBM) component targets increased community, and especially parents’, support for children’s education, while its active, joyful, effective learning (AJEL) component aims to strengthen children’s critical and creative thinking. This case study examined CLCC’s impact in two schools of Polman district, West Sulawesi province: one poor, rural school targeted by CLCC, and one better-off, urban school which adopted CLCC on its own. Accountability of school management improved at the better-off school, due largely to the school’s democratically-inclined headmaster, but SBM was a failure at the poorer school largely due to an autocratic headmaster and parents’ and School Committee members’ passivity. In both schools, AJEL dramatically changed teaching methods and increased student and parent participation, due to both headmaster support and the effectiveness of AJEL tools. For poor parents, reliance not just on formal communication via the School Committee but on informal communication (including an innovative school radio program) were key. At neither school have national exam scores or drop-out rates improved relative to those of neighboring non-CLCC schools. School attendance, however, improved, teaching methods improved, and students and parents both became more involved in school, so perhaps there is a mismatch between AJEL tools and exam subjects, or the national exam does not reflect the type of knowledge gained from AJEL. Since 2001, the district has expanded CLCC to 70 new schools using its own funding; local innovators have spread it to about 30 more schools. UNICEF financial support for CLCC ends in December 2005, and the program’s long-term sustainability is an open question. Greater community support is crucial for financial sustainability, particularly at the poorer school. The introduction of AJEL to secondary schools may be key to ensuring sustainability of impact. Finally, for institutional sustainability, the District Bureau of Education, ostensibly in charge of the program but unenthusiastic about it, must be convinced. Better monitoring of program impact might help to bring this reluctant agency on board.