Notes From Binjai, North Sumatra
In mid November 2008, Stuart Weston, the DBE3 CoP visited North Sumatra. One of the schools he visited was SMP Tunas Pelita. Below are his notes about what he found.
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Progress in the education sector is likely to be more successful if a variety of stakholders have a high level of common commitment to raise the quality of education.
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The Town, The School and The Teachers Look to Progress Together
In the town of Binjai in North Sumatra stakeholders from different levels involved in education expressed their desire to get more deeply involved in the quality improvement activities being organized by DBE3.
The Coordinator of School Supervisors from the District Education Office, Bpk. Surya Dharma asked for all his school supervisors to be involved in the teacher training, so that they could support the teachers in each of their schools.
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Bpk. Surya Dharma, Coordinator of School Supervisors from the District Education Office, expressing his wish that all his school supervisors be invited to the DBE3 teacher training.
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Stuart Weston and Budiman Saragih (in the middle) chatting with School Principal of SMPS Tunas Pelita.
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A School Principal That Wants to Make Progress
During the visit to SMPS Tunas Pelita, Binjai, Stuart Weston and Bpk. Budiman, DBE3 Provincial Coordinator, chatted with School Principal, Bpk. Widiatmoko.
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Progress in schools depends on a high degree on the commitment of the school principal.
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During the discussion Bpk. Widiatmoko expressed his wish that all teachers at SMPS Tunas Pelita receive training from DBE3 so that life skills education could be integrated in all subjects.
This desire expressed by Bpk. Widiatmoko arose from his concern about the quality of teaching and learning in his school. Bpk. Widiatmoko often holds teachers meeting (MGMP) in his school to develop contextual and active learning (CTL and PAKEM). This was evident during a visit to Bahasa Indonesia class.
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Contextual and Active Learning (CTL and PAKEM) does not require expensive materials and equipment and can be implemented in all subjects. The most important thing is that students are given tasks which encourage them to think and express their own ideas.
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Life Skills in a Bahasa Indonesia Lesson
Even though DBE3 has only trained teachers in depth in three subjects (English, Mathematics, and Civics), Bpk. Sujarno, a teacher at SMPS Tunas Pelita, Binjai was implementing contextual and active learning (CTL and PAKEM) to develop his students’ life skills during a Bahasa Indonesia lesson.
The students were asked to work in groups. Each group had to read a different short story. Then they were asked to write about she story, including summarizing the content and explaining the characteristics of a short story. After they had finished this task, each group had to read out the report on their discussions and answer questions from the other groups.
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A student at SMPS Tunas Pelita reading out the report of his group’s discussion during a Bahasa Indonesia lesson.
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