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Nunung Maryani was assigned to be the head of SD Duren III in 2018. The student population is quite large, but the number of study groups and classroom is limited. The number of teachers is also quite a lot. Therefore, Ms. Nunung has no choice but to divide the school time into two shifts: morning and afternoon.

This situation is quite challenging. Ms. Nunung has to sacrifice her time to be at school since the morning until the evening, from Monday to Saturday, in order to ensure the learning process runs effectively. Moreover, the school is located in rural area and far from ‘decent’ condition.

School principals in Klari District, Karawang, are generally appointed as a result of periodization from the previous principal. It means that the appointed principal is previously a teacher who later is assigned to be the school principal because the previous principal is retiring. However, it is a different case for Ms. Nunung; she was assigned because her time as school principal is not over yet.

Because of her experience, surprisingly, in just one year Ms. Nunung is able to transform SDN Duren III into a pilot school for other surrounding schools. In addition, their students’ achievements are improving significantly, and coordination between the morning-shift-teachers and afternoon-shift-teachers is getting much better.

To support her duty as school principal, Ms. Nunung has collaborated with INSPIRASI Foundation and participated in action plan project since mid-2019. Both parties are collaborating to make a more effective leadership at the school. It does not focus on administrative matter, but rather prioritize the success of student learning in class.

One of the examples is her responsibility to do the academic supervision, which is to observe the class. Along with INSPIRASI, Nunung tries to identify each teacher she assisting. She concludes that most teachers are still have difficulties to facilitate the students to have an active and effective learning process. Apparently, this is due to the lack of teachers’ knowledge related to active learning method in class.

After knowing the main causes of the problems faced by her teachers, Ms. Nunung plans several actions such as in house training. In one of the trainings, she asked her teachers to ‘shop’ knowledge online and use it as a source of their empowerment. Moreover, she also delegates teachers with IT skill to manage such learning resource so that it can be useful during the training.

The in-house training is conducted during routine meetings. Such moment is the best time possible because teachers of both shifts, morning and afternoon, can gather. Ms. Nunung also involves the school supervisor to become the resource person for the training. This great coordination makes all education administrators are getting closer to one another. Supervisors can also motivate the teachers to always apply what they get from the training sessions.

Some of the initiatives initiated by Ms. Nunung will be meaningless if there is no monitoring and evaluation. For this reason, when re-observing the teachers who have attended the training, she records the teaching and learning activities. She uses the recording as her data when giving feedback to the teachers.

You will harvest what you plant. This is the perfect proverb to describe the school principal. The teachers are starting to change their classic method when teaching into active learning models, which they got from the training. She also holds discussion regularly regarding learning models and reflecting them with the teachers during the official meeting. As a result, each teacher has an action plan for sustainable implementation.

In a way, it was not a long time ago that she started leading SDN Duren III, yet her program in fostering a learning culture for teachers is quite successful. It is now a habit for the teachers to use the school internet in preparing source or material for their teaching. The culture of willing to self-improve among the teachers such as reading about learning models is also increasing.

She practices what she believes: being determined and perseverant. Having experiences and desire to get ahead, Ms. Nunung has set the example of how important managing related parties at school effectively, particularly by improving the capacity of the teaching staff.

Author: Yoni Nurdiansyah

Editor: Masdar Fahmi