HEGEMONY OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARD EDUCATION 
AT PUBLIC SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL 78 JAKARTA 

 

Tuntun Sinaga 
Postgraduate Program 

Udayana University, Denpasar 
email: tuntunsinaga@gmail.com 

 
 

ABSTRACT 
 The Act Number 20 of 2003 concerning System of National instructed that 
international standard education unit be opened in every regency/city in every part of 
Indonesia as an attempt made to anticipate the globalized era. This study was intended 
to understand the forms of hegemony of PBI and the factors contributing to it at Public 
Senior High School 78 Jakarta. In the present study, the Theory of Hegemony, the 
Theory of Discourse of Power/Knowledge, and the Theory of Social Practice were 
eclectically used with qualitative approach. The data were taken from documents, 
brochures, mass media, experts in education, community leaders, teachers, students, 
parents and the headmaster. The data were taken through interview, observation and 
documentary study. The data were validated through the process of triangulation which 
includes data reduction, data presentation, data verification, and interpretation.  

The result of the study showed that (1) the hegemony of PBI took place in the 
forms of the standardization of education, the capitalization of education, the image of 
international quality, the stratification of education and (2) the factors contributing to the 
hegemony of PBI were the politics of national education and the discourse of globalism. 
Hegemony took place in the form of internationalization of eight SNP and 
“benchmarking” of the quality of education in OECD countries in order to anticipate 
globalization. It is suggested that the general middle education which reflected the 
philosophy of national education, Pancasila, need to be reconstructed.  

 
Keywords: hegemony, standardization of education, globalization. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

mailto:tuntunsinaga@gmail.com


INTRODUCTION 

 As an attempt to develop the national education, the government designed a PBI 

unit based on what was instructed in the Act Number 20 of 2003 concerning the system 

of national education ‘Sistim Pendidikan Nasional’ Article 50 clause (3): “The 

government and local government undertake at least one unit of education in all levels of 

education to be developed into international standard educational unit”. In general, the 

government policy in education reflects how it views community, its political belief and 

interests (Sirozi, 2007: 17-18). 

 From political perspective, the policy of PBI is ideological-cultural in nature and 

constitutes a form of the government hegemony in the discursive contestation within the 

context of politics, economy, social and culture. In this case, hegemony refers to the 

concept of the domination of the dominating group (the government) over the 

subordinate groups (the community of education) through the process of intellectual, 

moral and political leadership and its implementation is supported by intellectuals 

referred to as the organic intellectual. Hegemony takes place when the subordinated 

classes have accepted the way of thinking of the dominating class (Bocock, 1986: 33; 

Simon, 1999: 9; Gramsci, 1971:57). 

 Since 2006 the government had developed the PBI unit in the form of schools 

which were designed to be international standard ‘Rencana Sekolah Berstandar 

International (RSBI) which exceeded the National Standard of Education ‘Standar 

Nasional Pendidikan (SNP)’. The RSBI was designed to be the school which would be 

developed into the international standard school ‘Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional’ (SBI). 

Then this led to a paradox in various aspects such as the teaching staff, the educational 

facilities, and the leadership of such an education unit. What could be observed from the 

national education was the phenomenon of the implementation of the principles of 

neoliberalism which was not in line with the idealism of the Constitution (Rifai, 2011: 

141-143; Tilaar, 2007: 242; Darmaningtyas, 2012: 58-61). 

 It is important to see the matters pertaining to education from the ideological-

cultural perspective. The reason is that, in theory, the attempt made to solve the matters 

pertaining to education should commence by correcting the non realistic assumptions as 

the basis for making the policy of educational politics (Widja, 2009: 5). The present study 

was conducted at Public Senior High School 78 Jakarta for the reason that it was 

relatively close to “the eight minimal standards” of national education in order to deserve 



“the RSBI status”. In this case, it was interesting to explore critically the discourse of PBI 

in order to understand the forms of the PBI hegemony and the factors leading to it.  

 

RESEARCH METHOD 

 This present study employed descriptive-qualitative method. The primary data 

were obtained by interviewing the teachers, the headmaster and his assistants, the 

students, the students’ parents and the experts in education. The secondary data were 

in the forms of laws, regulations, and guide to the SBI implementation (Endraswara, 

2006: 115-119); Mulyana, 2002: 173-176). The instruments used in the present study 

were an interview guide, a camera, and a computer. The data were validated through 

the process of triangulation which included data reduction, data presentation, data 

verification and presentation. As this present study is a qualitative study, the data were 

informally (descriptively) presented.  

 
DISCUSSION 

 RSBI Unit constitutes the development of capitalism and neoliberalism in 

education as, in its implementation, it “only” gives opportunity to particular socio-

economic groups. Based on the field data, the “benchmarking” of the quality of education 

which refers to the quality of education of the countries which are members of the 

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) socially and 

economically affected various components of the national educational standard. The 

quality educational services, for example, was getting capitalistic, stratified and was only 

enjoyed by particular social groups. However, according to the 1945 Constitution, the 

national education is indented to produce intelligent Indonesians (Tilaar, 2007: 242; 

Tilaar, 2006: 76).  

 Inn 1970s Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich criticized the world of education which was 

always assumed to be full with good deeds; in fact, however, it contains suppressions. In 

this case, education is considered reproducing the system of capitalism (Fakih, 2001: x-

xi). The field finding showed that the policy of PBI and standardization of educational 

components caused the text books needed at Public Senior High School 78 Jakarta to 

be imported. In addition, the Cambridge examination was held, the costs needed 

became high and the economically weak people became marginalized. In this matter the 

globalized ideology operated through the policy of standardization of education which is 

full of competitive values and replaces the state socio-cultural values. In this matter, the 



PBI discourse dominates the education at Public Senior High School 78 Jakarta. This 

took place through the relation between SNP and “international standard of education” in 

the form of standardization of education.  

 The forms of hegemony of PBI at Public Senior High School 78 Jakarta included 

the standardization of education, the capitalism of education, the image of international 

quality, and the stratification of education. The standardization of education referred to 

the Act of Sisdiknas (the System of National Education) 20/2003 article 50 clause (3) 

concerning PBI unit as a strategy to anticipate the problems of the quality of education 

and the low national compatibility in the globalized era. The capitalization of education 

resulted from the implementation of OECD-oriented PBI unit and the rationalization of 

education as an investment which led to the commodification of education. The image of 

international quality at Public Senior High School 78 was achieved through the reality of 

education and the qualification of the teaching staff which was not in accordance with 

what was required by the “international curriculum” in order to be SBI. The stratification 

of educational services resulted in regular class, RSBI, and international class.  

 The factors which contributed to the hegemony of PBI were the politics of 

national education and globalism. The government dominated the community of 

education through PBI, the discourse of standardization, and compatibility in the 

globalized current. In this case, the Act of Sisdiknas Number 20 of 2003 and the 

Government Regulation Number 19 of 2005 concerning SNP required that PBI unit 

should be developed without taking the objective reality of a school into account. 

Globalization contributed to the international standardization such as the accreditation of 

ISO management, the adaptation of OECD  curriculum and the use of the English 

language as the educational medium in order to be internationally recognized. The 

government and the group of intellectuals rationalized the policy of PBI through various 

socializations of education, discourses and jargons such as “globalized challenge”, 

“standard quality human resources”, “international compatibility” , the ISO certificate, 

“productivity” and the importance of mastering foreign languages especially English 

(Permendiknas No. 78 of 2009 concerning the implementation of SBI).  

 

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 

 PBI which was designed to lead to quality education and international 

compatibility was responsible for political, social, economic and cultural problems. The 

discourse of globalism and the politics of national education resulted in the hegemony of 



PBI at Public Senior High School 78 Jakarta in various forms such as the 

standardization of education, the capitalization of education, the stratification of 

education, and the image of international quality. The hegemony of PBI was influenced 

by internal and external factors, the politics of national education and globalism.  

 The ideology of globalism in the policy of PBI caused education to be capitalistic, 

discriminative, and exclusive, and contributed to injustice. It is suggested that the Act of 

Sisdiknas Number 20 of 2003 with its various education policies should be 

comprehensively explored.  

 

ACKNOWLEGEMENT 

 In this opportunity, the writer would like to thank the Directorate General of 

Higher Education for the BPPS scholarship provided to the writer, and the principal of 

Public Senior High School 78 Jakarta for supporting the process of the present study. 

The writer would also like to thank the teaching staff of the Doctorate Program of 

Cultural Studies, School of Postgraduate Studies of Udayana University such as Prof. 

Dr. Aron Meko Mbete, Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Kutha Ratna, S.U., and Prof. Dr. I Made 

Suastika, S.U. for their input to this article.  

 

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