ESSAY | submitted as a fulfillment of Midterm exam for EFL Methodology course 2018

From University Town to Neighborhood Schools:

Criticizing Indonesia’s school zoning regulation
Submitted on October 29, 2018

By Iffianti A A | 1803287

As a country that conducts a standardized test as its national assessment, Indonesia is aware
of how important the education equity is in struggling to meet the national standard. In order to
achieve the national objectives, it is only fair if all schools have approximately the same
opportunities in pursuing a good quality of both teaching and learning practices. In fact, rapid
changes in economy and technology seem to be only advantageous for certain schools (Veski et al.,
2014). As a result, there is a paradigm saying that schools in “university town” or central of the city
are better compared to those in rural area. Consequently, some of schools are loaded with many
high qualified students, and the rest might be the place for those who are rejected from “favorite”
schools. With regard to this issue, school zoning system is then established by the Ministry of
Education and Culture as an attempt to provide a non-discriminatory and just education system for
public schools (Nugraha, 2018). In this essay, I would like to address how this novel education
system contributes to the quality and equity of our public schools and what might be lacking in the
process of implementation. Furthermore, in order to widen the perspective, I will reflect our case to
Finnish’ education system since Finland is notable to be the most leading country in education.

Promoting education equity is one of the objectives of zoning system (Ministry o Education
and Culture, 2016). Since 2016, the year zoning system was created, both voices and noises
appeared from either parents or schools. Those who agree believe that this zoning system can
moderate the gaps between popular and under-rated schools (Veski et al., 2014). This system will
promote the education equity in which schools in any region will have the same opportunity in
receiving students. These voices in line with the objective set by the government. In the report by
Nugraha (2018), Minister Muhadji Effendi said that, “the new system will be more objective,
accountable, transparent, non-discriminatory and just, and will ensure equal opportunity and access
to education”. Meanwhile, some people are opposing the system since they think that both parents
and schools are not ready for the new system. In students’ perspective, zoning system can lessen
their burdens in term of accommodation and psychological conditions (The Jakarta Post, 2018).
Students will travel less far than usual and feel less tired once they arrive at school so that they will
be more comfortable in starting the lesson. Meanwhile, schools will also get the benefit in a way
that they will get the same label to one another; there are no popular or less popular schools
anymore. On the other hand, parents will be put in the most complicated situation. It is obvious that
parents will always seek for the best school for their children. Parents’ background will also influence
their choices in picking schools. Parents in this case may be the hardest party in cooperating with the
new system.

Another aim of zoning system is to balance all schools’ qualities (Ministry of Education and
Culture, 2016). By given a fair chance to get the best students, it might be easier for schools to
improve their quality through academic achievement, for instance. Moreover, if they have many
potential students registered, teachers at school will also be motivated and aware that they also
 ESSAY | submitted as a fulfillment of Midterm exam for EFL Methodology course 2018

should enhance their teaching skills in order to cope with the students. This cooperation between
the students and the school will wipe away the paradigm of school; saying that neighborhood school
is worse than those in central town. This may also slowly change the way parents will perceive the
neighborhood schools. They will eventually put in their trust in schools near their residences since it
has the same quality with any school far away from home.

On the other hand, all aims of zoning system might be in vain if the implementation goes in a
wrong direction. What I want to point out is, “are schools and the local governments ready to use
zoning system?” Based on my observation and experience, some schools are still working as profit-
maker for some people, often times, for those who are sitting in power. If the stakeholders still treat
the school as profit-maker and also as personal reputation control, I believe that zoning system will
only be at fault. However, we cannot also become too skeptical in trying this zoning system. If we
are looking at its origin, zoning system has been implemented in some countries long before it is
applied in Indonesia. One of them is Finland. According to PISA score alone, Finnish students lead
many skills in education especially in reading. This indicates that the system implemented in Finland
has contributed to its success. Why haven’t we achieved as high as Finns? What kind of system we
run, matters a lot to our quality of education. However, poeple who run the system itself is more
important. As a matter of fact, according to the report by Liputan6 in 2018, they found out that
Finnish teachers have big awareness in improving their professional skills and will give their best
effort to help the students learn how to learn. In addition, Hancock (2011) in his article said that,
“equality is the most important word in Finnish Education.” There are no comparisons between
schools and students in every region. Most importantly, in Finland, every school is loaded with
similar quality of trained educators. Trained teachers are equally administered to every school.

Thus, by taking into account the fact that this system is more successful in other countries,
Indonesia has to improve first some aspects in the inner system, such as the quality of educators,
integrity of all the stake holders and moreover, the courage of parents to change their perception
toward neighborhood schools need to be strengthened. Becoming successful in education is not a
piece of cake. It needs courage to change ourselves and get prepared in facing the innovation along
with its challenges in this 21st century era. If these principles involve in the school zoning scenario, I
believe that Indonesia will lead better in education.
 ESSAY | submitted as a fulfillment of Midterm exam for EFL Methodology course 2018

References

Hancock,.L..(2011)..Why are Finland’s schools successfull?..Retrieved from

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/

Kemendikbud. (2016)..Kemendikbud: Sistem zonasi sangat tepat untuk pemerataan pendidikan.

Retrieved from https://www.kemdikbud.go.id/

Liputan6. (2018). Ini sebab Finlandia punya sistem pendidikan terbaik di dunia. Retrieved from
https://www.liputan6.com/citizen6/read/3292677/ini-sebab-finlandia-punya-sistem-
pendidikan-terbaik-di-dunia

Nugraha, E. (2018). Indonesian Media in Brief: School zoning regulations for educational equity.
Retrieved from https://australiaindonesiacentre.org/indonesian-media-in-brief-school-zoning-
regulations-for-educational-equity/

The Jakarta Post. (2018). School zoning system benefits students, parents and schools. Retrieved
from.http://www.thejakartapost.com/adv/2018/06/22/school-zoning-system-benefits-
students-parents-and-schools.html

Veski, et al. (2014). Swedish, Finnish, and Estonian schools: Family background and moderating
effects of school level choice policy. Tallin University of Technology.