Balloons to mark the launch of Open High School program in 2014/2015 school year is held by an indigenous West Papuans, before its release by Education and Culture Minister Muhamad Nuh and West Papua Governor Abraham O. Atururi. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education and Culture).
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In an effort to tackle targets of 97 percent enrolment in high schools in Indonesia by 2020, the Ministry of Education has committed to a breakthrough initiative through its Universal High School Education program called Open High School – a part of its commitment to improving education standards across Indonesia.
Launching in June last year, the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Universal High School Education (PMU) program in Indonesia set a gross enrolment ratio (GER) target of 97 percent enrolment in high school education by 2020. That ratio, in a little under a year, now stands at 80 percent.
They devised a plan called Open High School, an innovative new program offering part-online part-in person classroom structures so as to better suit the needs of the nation’s young people.
Open High School launched on May 10 as part of National Education Day commemorations in Sorong, West Papua, with a video conference linking the six parent schools with the Minister for Education and Culture.
The Open High School program will be implemented in the 2014/2015 school year. Six provinces where high school education GER is still under the national average will implement the program.
The provinces are West Java, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara, West Papua, South Kalimantan and Jambi. The goal, in addition to increasing GER, is to become a part of affirmative education within an ‘education for all’ framework.
Open High School is a subsystem of education at the high school level that promotes self-learning principles with face-to-face instruction but also offering online course work on a limited basis. Open High School is a special education services in formal schools organized by the parent school, as a part of the school regular service. The parent school that organizes Open High School manages and serves two different groups of learners, namely regular and remote ones.
According to its characteristics, then each group of learners is served by different learning systems.
Open High School’s vision is to improve access, quality and relevance of high school education in support of the target achievement of Universal High School Education (PMU).
Its mission is to:
(i) Establish Open High Schools across Indonesia as special education services for junior high school graduates who cannot attend regular high school due to geography, social, or economic problems;
(ii) Develop a self-learning system that combines distance learning through the Internet and face-to-face tutoring;
(iii) Provide learning opportunities to as many as possible people, who cannot attend regular high school education, through the self-learning system;
(iv) Increase people’s participation special education services implementation;
(v) Prepare high school graduates, who are able to take initiatives for self- and community empowerment.
The main subject of Open High School program is junior high graduates who cannot attend regular high school due to economic, geographic, time, social, or cultural constraints; as well as students who drop out of high school.
The Minister of Education and Culture Mohammad Nuh spoke with the heads of the districts where the Open High School program will launch first during the video conference.
Mr Nuh said that the government intends to provide education services to as many students as possible, regardless of their regional origin, income level, or cultural background. By harnessing the power of technology the Open High School program does just that.
“Through the Open High School program, we are looking ahead so that no children who cannot continue their education to high school education. The government continues to provide the best services in education,” he said.
Region’s Well Reception
The Open High School program is well received in regions. People in six provinces responded attentively to the program’s information dissemination that is held by Secretary of High School Education Directorate General at the Education Ministry.
Zaini Arony, regent of West Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, thanked the central government for selecting his district to be amongst the first to implement Open High School program this year.
“This innovative initiative from Ministry of Education and Culture must succeed and we are ready to maximize its reach, as high school education GER in our region is still low. We hope that the Open High School program can increase the GER, because obstacles of accessing high school education services are getting lower,” he said. Zaini said that his region is committed to increasing student quota through the Open High School program if its enrolment demand exceeds the quota set by central government.
“I’ve discussed it with our education department and with DPRD [Regional House of Representatives], in order to get them supporting this program. We strongly support this education program that aims to increase the quality of human resources,” Zaini said.
The district government of Bandung Barat in West Java conveyed similar response. The district’s education department is committed to supporting efforts to increase high school attendance rates through the implementation of the Open High School program in their region.
In West Lombok the Open High School program has been awarded to Narmada High School. The school will be responsible for the implementation of teaching and learning of the Open High School students in the district. Meanwhile, Padalarang 2 High School will become the parent school for open high school students in the West Bandung district.
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