KOMPAS.com – INSPIRASI Foundation collaborating with a number of donor agencies held an Educational Leadership Initiative to Accomplish Achievement (INSPIRASI) program dedicated to school principals in Karawang Regency, West Java. 25 school principals in Karawang attended the program, and the implementation began in the 2019/2020 school year for the next 1.5 years. The objective is to develop the principal’s leadership, and it is expected to have a positive influence on the improvement of the quality of teacher and student learning outcomes. The donor agencies involved are Tanoto Foundation, Global School Leaders, Resinda Hotel Karawang, PT Bukit Muria Jaya, Triputra Agro Persada, and Asia Philanthropy Circle. According to the Executive Director of the Inspirasi Foundation, Patrya Pratama, the selection of 25 school principals consisting of 20 principals of public primary schools and 5 madrasah ibtidaiyah is based on several criteria. The first criterion is the schools are located in urban area and close to each other so it will be easier to reach. The second requirement is that schools taking part in this program are not currently attending any similar training programs organized by any party, for example by Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud). “Because we have an impact evaluation, we don’t know for sure whether the changes in the school are the result of our program or of other programs. Hence, the chosen location is in the Klari and Lemah Abang Districts in Karawang,” Patrya said to Kompas.com after the launch of the Inspirasi program, Thursday (7/18/2019) at Resinda Hotel Karawang, West Java. Then, Patrya added, the selected school principal shall not retire in the next one or two years because this program lasts 1.5 years. ”So, if the principal retires after attending the program, it will be meaningless and cannot be transferred to their teachers and students. So, the selected principal shall not retire next year; at least they have been in such a position for a year, that would be enough. We consider he has been through one school planning cycle” he added. In addition, the personal motivation of the principal also determines whether he can join this program or not. Patrya saidhe did not want this program to be top-down or by command wherethe principal is forced to participate because he was appointed.

INSPIRASI does not want to put any pressure on the involved school principals. However, apparently many are interested because many parties still rarely hold such a program. He also expressed that it becomes more challenging when choosing a madrasah (Islamic school) principal, since there are many of them, and we have to coordinate with the Ministry ofReligion instead of the Ministry of Education and Culture. “So choosing five madrasah is rather difficult, but because this is a pilot project, and the budget is limited, we choose five for starters,” said Patrya. Regarding the innovations initiated by the school principal, according to him, it is not taken into consideration. The teaching technique of each individual teacher is more considered, for example there are some teachers who are more effective than others; so they have a good teaching source or material. “Regarding innovation or how good a school is, is not a criterion to be selected, because this program will not give any solution should the good ones be selected; the targeted schools are indeed those that are not quite good” said Patrya. According to him, the schools do not have to do many innovations because there is no point in that if there is no chance to learn from each other. Therefore, one of the activities of INSPIRASIprogram is a sequential workshop to enable its participants sharing experiences with each other.

This article was published on Kompas.com with the title

“INSPIRASI Program for 25 Principals, These are the Terms and Location”, https://edukasi.kompas.com/read/2019/07/20/13004901/program-inspirasi-untuk-25-kepala-sekolah-ini-syarat-dan-lokasinya.

Author: Erwin Hutapea

Editor: Latif

Date: July 20, 2019/13.00 WIB