1.5 Years Program, This is the Material of “INSPIRASI” Program
KOMPAS.com – Educational Leadership Initiative to Accomplish Achievement (INSPIRASI) program given to school principals in Karawang Regency, West Java, launched on Thursday (7/18/2019) at Resinda Hotel Karawang. This first time program aims to develop the quality of the principal’s leadership and will later influence the improvement of the quality of student learning outcomes. The implementation starts in the 2019/2020 school year and will last for 1.5 years. The program is attended by 20 principals of public elementary schools and 5 madrasah ibtidaiyah in Karawang. Executive Director of INSPIRASI, Patrya Pratama, said, the implementation of this program is executed through workshops and school facilitation of practical work of the school principals in the school. During that 1.5 year period, the workshops and on the job learning will be held each month consecutively.
“The term is in (workshop) learning and on the job learning. So in, on, in, on and so on,” said Patrya when talking with Kompas.com, Thursday (7/18/2019).
“INSPIRASI” Program: Developing the Quality of School Principals The training material consists of three things. First, focus on the principal’s basic leadership skills before carrying out tasks, for example collaboration with teachers, time management, and communication. “These things have never existed in the design of leadership training from the government, despite the fact that it is important,” he added. The second material is problem solving ability. This training focuses on how to solve any problem related to students’ learning at school because later the principal will solve his own problems at school level. They are encouraged to discuss with other school principals so that they can share experiences in dealing with similar problems.
Then, the third material focuses on academic supervision. There are three things that are prioritized in this material, namely developing teachers, classroom observation, and reviewing the lesson plan (RPP). “Not all school principals are accustomed to conduct classroom observations and give feedback to their teachers. Even though the regulations already exist, not all are comfortable enough, so it needs to be familiarized. To review the lesson plan so that the teachers teach with active learning methods, usually mostly only one-way teaching,” explained Patrya. He said, the biggest problem of most training programs so far was when the program was finished, the organizers did not know whether the practice that had been taught was continued or not. Therefore, INSPIRASI Foundation partners with a research institute to conduct an impact evaluation; which means whether there is a change occurring in terms of their practice or knowledge/skills, including teachers and students, after the principal attended the training. “If the principal is the only one who becomes more effective, the training has no impact; since the main goal is for students to learn. We never know without impact evaluation. There are surveys and observations. Sometimes we strongly believe that our program is successful; however, there is no guarantee for that” he said. Regarding the implementation of the INSPIRASI training which lasts for 1.5 years, Patrya argued that a change for better circumstances is impossible to achieve within an instant or quick process. Even if it is fast, usually participants only can practice the material right after the workshop, but when the program is finished, it’s just gone just like that. “This 1.5 years is meant to be a gradual release. The first year we are going to facilitate them. The second year or six months later we give a greater role to supervisors to help guide them. The hope is that when the program ends, supervisors will take over the work done by 28% of students in Indonesia attained Level 2 or higher in mathematics (OECD average: 76%).. So they are the one who sustain the program,” he explained.
This article was published on Kompas.com with the title “1.5 Years of Training, This is the Material of “INSPIRASI” Program, https://edukasi.kompas.com/read/2019/07/19/16543431/pelatihan-15-tahun-ini-materi-program-inspirasi.
Author: Erwin Hutapea
Editor: Yohanes Enggar Harususilo
Date: July 19, 2019