DISCOURSE OF QUALITY EDUCATION
IN PUBLIC JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN DENPASAR CITY

I Nengah Narsa

Public Junior High School 12 Denpasar

email: inyomannarsa@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT


This present study was conducted to understand the discourse of quality education in Public Junior High Schools in Denpasar City. The study focused on the discourse of quality education in the practice of enrollment of new learners, the implementation of ‘Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan’, and the implementation of the National Final Examination in Public Junior High Schools in Denpasar City. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively and interpretatively. The theory of discourse of power/knowledge, the theory of social practice, and the theory of School-based Management were eclectically used in the present study.


The results of the study showed that, first, the practice of the enrollment of new learners ‘Praktik Penerimaan Peserta Didik Baru (PPDB)’, Educational Unit-based Curriculum ‘Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP)’, and the National Final Examination ‘Ujian Nasional (UN)’ which tended to neglect the principle of School-based Management (MBS) and the school autonomy had led to the discourse of quality education in Public Junior High Schools ‘Sekolah Menengah Pertama (SMPN)’ in Denpasar City; second, the ideology which was referred to in the discourse of quality education which was related to PPDB, KTSP and UN in public junior high schools in Denpasar City was the liberal ideology which was based on rationalism, individualism and commercialism; third, the discourse of quality education in public junior high schools in Denpasar City had theoretical implication, namely, there was an expectation to reinforce the ideology of critical-cultural education and to establish the paradigm of political policy which supported the attempt made to realize quality education. 

Keywords: Discourse, quality education, ideology, school autonomy.
INTRODUCTION 

Formal education is perpetually developed in order to produce intact Indonesian people. The quality of education can be viewed from the educational process and the educational outcome. The educational process is considered excellent if all the educational components are involved in it. The factors which determine the educational process are various types of input such as the learning materials, methodology, school equipment, administrative support, facilities and infrastructure, and atmosphere which is conducive to the educational process. However, the educational quality within the context of the educational outcome refers to the achievement achieved by a school within a certain period of time.

Formal education which is provided at school seems to lead to debates. The enrollment of new learners, the curriculum implementation, and the national final examination lead to debates. On one hand, the protest expressed by the public, the polemics which is related to “the bad educational system” frequently exposed on the mass media expresses the public disappointment with the educational system which has been implemented so far. On the other hand, such polemics also positively expresses what is desired by the public and the government to have quality education. Three problems are discussed in the present study. They are (1) what is the discourse of quality education like in the practice of the enrollment of new learners, the implementation of ‘Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan’ and the National Final Education in Public Junior High Schools in Denpasar City?; (2) what ideology is referred to in the discourse of quality education which is related to the practice of the enrollment of new learners, the implementation of ‘Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan’ and the National Final Education in Public Junior High Schools in Denpasar City?, (3) what is the implication of the discourse of quality education as an attempt to realize quality education in Public Junior High Schools in Denpasar City?
RESEARCH METHOD


This dissertation research was designed to use qualitative method with the approach of cultural studies. Qualitative method is strongly relevant to the research in cultural studies which is interdisciplinary in nature. The general approaches which are applied to cultural studies are ethnographic approach, textual approach, and the approach of reception (Barker, 2005: 35-45). 

The data were collected from 12 Public Junior High Schools in Denpasar City using the techniques of participatory observation, in depth interview involving 29 informants, and focused discussion group involving the competent stakeholders. The data which were collected were qualitatively and interpretatively analyzed. The theory of discourse of power/knowledge, the theory of social practice and the theory of School-based Management theory were eclectically used in the study.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION


The practice of the enrollment of new learners ‘Praktik Penerimaan Peserta Didik Baru (PPDB)’, the implementation of the Educational Unit-based Curriculum ‘Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP)’ and the National Final Examination ‘Ujian Nasional (UN)’ which were not in accordance with the National Educational Standard ‘Ujian Nasional Pendidikan (SNP)’ led to the discourse of education in Public Junior High Schools ‘Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri (SMPN)’ in Denpasar City. The policy and practice of PPDB, KTSP and UN tended not to pay attention to the principle of MBS and the school autonomy. The practice of PPDB in SMPN in Denpasar City was not in accordance with the accommodating capacity and the preparedness of the school human resources. The principles of the enrollment of new learners ‘PPDB’ which should be objective, transparent, accountable, not discriminative and competitive have been applied; however, they were disgraced by the practice of manipulating “evidence of achievement” and the practice of illegal payment during the process of the enrollment of new learners in Junior High Schools in Denpasar City.

The policy of KTSP implemented from 2006 to 2012 was centrally developed and was not in accordance with the school autonomy and the principle of KTSP as the school-based curriculum. In practice, KTSP was identical to the Competency-based Curriculum ‘Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi (KBK)’ previously implemented. The four pillars determined by UNESCO in KTSP, namely, learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together were not consistently implemented. The teachers in SMPN in Denpasar City were heavily loaded. The learning hours were relatively allocated, causing the learning process in the classroom to tend to take place in the form of monologue. The teachers only had time to present the theoretical aspect only; they did not have time to give examples and practices related to the material substance of the lessons provided. 

The practice of UN, which was determined by the central government, could be joined by the learners in SMPN in Denpasar City with satisfactory outcome (academic achievement); in 2012, for example, 90.90% of the learners could pass the UN. However, the outcome achieved by the learners of SMPN in Denpasar City was evaluated not to be able to reflect the academic achievement they achieved. In addition, it could not be used to measure the educational progress in Bali. The UN still caused the learners to “be sacred” and to shift their learning orientation, meaning that what they had expected was finishing their studies quickly and obtaining certificate of completion of study. Based on the principle of MBS and school autonomy, the UN, which was still centrally implemented, should be reviewed. It was expected that the school had the right to determine who could successfully complete their studies.

The policy and practice of education was based on a particular ideology. The ideology which was referred to in the discourse of quality education, especially the ideology which was related to PPDB, KTSP and UN in SMPN in Denpasar City, was the ideology of liberal education. In general, the liberal ideology was based on rationalism, individualism and commercialism. Rationalism could produce the learners who gave priority to the rational way of thinking, individualism could contribute to the individual free competitive behavior and pragmatic nature of the learners, and commercialism could stimulate the practice of educational commercialism, marked by the appearance of outside school educational courses. The learners who came from the rich families had more opportunities than those coming from the poor families to join such courses. In this case, educational liberalism could directly and indirectly contribute to a socio-economic gap between the learners coming from the rich families and those coming from the poor families, and between the learners of SMPN in Denpasar City and those of the private junior high schools. 


Such a socio-economic gap might potentially weaken social integration. Education developed into a practice of business which was not in accordance with the real vision and mission of education, namely, producing the Indonesian people who were highly competent and had the character which was in accordance with the state cultural values. It is necessary to develop education to produce intelligent people as intended in the preamble of the 45 Constitution, namely, producing “intact people”. The educational process shifted the educational world to various forms of degradation, problems, and popularity as the basic values of commercialism (Widja, 2007: 80). It was true that the liberal-capitalistic educational ideology tended to produce learners with pragmatic character, and directed learners to be the people who would be more potentially prepared to enjoy and use, rather than to create and trigger the hidden (latent) potentials the learners might have (Widja, 2009: 36). 


The discourse of quality education in SMPN in Denpasar City had both theoretical and practical implications. The theoretical implication included (a) an attempt to shift the basic ideology of education which was liberal and capitalistic to the ideology of education which was critical and cultural  and highly supported the principles of justice, equality, democracy, humanity  and education which sharpened the mentality of the nation; (b) the establishment of the paradigm of political policy which supported the attempt made to create quality education, namely, the educational paradigm which was decentralist, populist, holistic, and integrative, and the establishment of the mission of educational culture. The practical implication included the attempt made to strengthen the school autonomy in SMPN in Denpasar City in order to realize quality education and to form intelligent and competitive Indonesian people. 

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION  

From the present study, several conclusions could be drawn. First, the discourse of quality education in SMPN in Denpasar City resulted from the practices of PPDB, KTSP, and UN which were not in accordance with the National Standard of Education ‘Standar Nasional Pendidikan (SNP)’. The policy and practices of PPDB, KTSP and UN tended to neglect the principles of MBS and school autonomy. 

Second, the ideology which was referred to in the discourse of quality education which was particularly related to PPDB, KTSP and UN in SMPN in Denpasar City was the ideology of liberal education which was based on rationalism, individualism and commercialism. Rationalism could produce the personalities which gave priority to logics or the rational way of thinking; individualism could trigger the pattern of free competitive behavior and cause the learners to have pragmatic character; and commercialism could lead to the practice of educational commercialism. 


Third, the discourse of quality education in SMPN in Denpasar City had theoretical implication; it shifted the foundation of educational ideology to the educational ideology which was critical and cultural and established the paradigm of political policy which supported the attempt made to create quality education. The discourse of quality education in SMPN in Denpasar City also had practical implication, which included the implementation of MBS as an attempt to create effective school, the maximization of the management of school facilities and infrastructure, the recruitment of teachers and improvement of their capacities, the improvement of the quality of extracurricular and intracurricular learning processes, the establishment of the public participation and the school funding. Apart from that, it was necessary to strengthen the school autonomy in order to produce competitive and intelligent Indonesian people. 


The attempt made to develop quality education in SMPN in Denpasar City was a complicated problem, as it could not be separated from the matters pertaining to ideology, politics, educational policy and bureaucracy, and their implementations. Therefore, it is suggested that quality education should be perpetually developed in junior high school from the perspective of cultural studies.  
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The writer was supported by many parties. Therefore, in this opportunity, the writer would like to thank and highly appreciate Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Darma Putra, M.Litt. as the supervisor, Prof. Dr. I Wayan Cika, M.S., as co-supervisor 1, and Dr. I Gede Mudana, M.Si. as co-supervisor 2 for their valuable supervision and input; otherwise, this writing could not have been realized. 

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