61 

 

 

ANALYSIS OF TEACHER CERTIFICATION POLICY 

IMPLEMENTATION THROUGH EDWARD III APPROACH IN 

ACEH TAMIANG REGENCY, INDONESIA 

 

 

Nurbaiti NURBAITI* 

Humaizi  

Beti NASUTİON 

*Universitas Sumatera Utara, Master of Development Studies , nurbaity.903@gmail.com 

 

Article history: 

Accepted 20 May 2019 

Available online 10 July 2019 

 

Keywords:  

Policy Implementation,  

Certification, 

Teacher’s Professionalism, 

Edward III Approach 

A b s t r a c t 

 

This paper aims to study and analyze the implementation of teacher certification regulations in Kuala 

Simpang, Aceh Tamiang Regency. This analysis uses several factors found by Edward III in the form 

of communication, resources, disposition, and bureaucratic structure. A qualitative descriptive 

approach is used in this paper. The results found showed that in the process of applying certification 

at the Aceh Tamiang education office, it had not yet proceeded effectively demanding several 

constraints such as lack of facilities and infrastructure, and inconsistent regulations that made it 

difficult for teachers. This has caused teachers to be unable and ineligible in completing lesson plans, 

there are still some teachers who are found to lack discipline and bad attitudes and certification are 

only considered for welfare and personal gain. Thus it can be stated that the certification program 

has not played an important role in teacher professionalism. 

  

 

 

Introduction 

Education is considered as the construction of knowledge, 

competency, and potential development, where it has transformed 

drastically. Besides, students are expected to be able to learn 

without the limitation of time and place. Another important issue 

in education is the means to provide opportunities for students to 

make them think while they are solving problems, analyzing, and 

synthesize their knowledge at every level of their studies 

(Prasertcharoensuk, Somprach, & Ngang, 2015). To be able to 

meet the objectives of education, the teacher has an important role 

as individuals who devote themselves to the world of education. 

Teacher plays a pivotal role in the entire academic educative 

process and pupil academic achievement (Fahmi, Maulana, & 

Yusuf, 2011)  (Khan, 2013). An excellent quality of education is 

closely related to the professionalism of the teacher and their 

performance in educating the students.The acknowledgment of 

the position of the teacher as a professional as referred to is 

evidenced by the educator's certificate. Teachers are required to 

have academic qualifications, competencies, educator 

certificates, physical and mental health, and have the ability to 

realize national education objectives (Kusnandar, 2018). 

 

The Indonesia’s Law number 14 of 2005 regarding teachers and 

college teacher (Dosen), forcefully argues that teachers are 

professional educators with the primary task of educating, 

teaching, guiding, directing, training, assessing, and evaluating 

students who may be in the school-age informal education, 

primary education and secondary education (Bakar, 2018). 

Teacher certification has become the basis for ensuring the 

establishment of professional teachers to realize the goals of 

national education. The implementation of teacher certification is 

expected to be a solution in achieving the standards of qualified 

and professional teachers (Kurniawan, 2011). The program of 

teacher certification was started in 2006 with a target of certifying 

around 2.3 million elementary and secondary (middle school) 

teachers in 2015. With this large-scaled certification program, all 

teachers in Indonesia will eventually be certified by2015. The 

budgetary cost of this program is estimated to be about US$460 



 

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million. To the best of our knowledge, with this program’s 

magnitude, this could be the biggest teacher certification program 

in the developing world, if not in the world (Fahmi, Maulana, & 

Yusuf, 2011). 

 

In terms of implementing regulations specifically the teacher 

certification program regulation. These factors are 

communication and socialization, availability of resources, the 

attitude of the officer, regulation procedures and coordination 

between the parties involved. These four factors are the 

benchmarks for a successful implementation of teacher 

certification which will be discussed in the next chapter. Of these 

four factors, we will be able to assess whether the implementation 

of teacher certification has gone according to the direction of the 

regulation or not, and in terms of professionalism, there are three 

competencies that must be fulfilled by certified teachers, namely 

pedagogic competence, professional competence, and personality 

competence. 

 

The implementation of teacher certification which refers to the 

Minister of National Education Regulation Number 5 of 2012 

regarding teacher Certification in Occupations is carried out in 

several stages to adjust with the availability of funds, both the 

funding for certification and funding for professional educator 

additional allowances for the teachers who pass certification. At 

the beginning of its implementation, which began from 2007 to 

2017, many obstacles were found both in terms of regulations that 

were inconsistent and the technical implementation in the field 

which of course involved several parties, namely the district 

education office, and the certified teachers. The formulation of 

teacher certification regulation that sounds ideal can build hopes 

for a better quality of education by improving the teacher’s 

professionalism and the quality of education. This paper will 

discuss the matter in a more depth discussion regarding the 

implementation of certification regulation in the professionalism 

of teachers, especially in the Kuala Simpang District of Aceh 

Tamiang Regency. 

 

1. Methodology 

The data for this paper were collected using descriptive methods 

through a qualitative approach, therefore, it will describe and 

explain the implementation of teacher certification policy in the 

Kuala Simpang District of Aceh Tamiang Regency. This region 

has criteria as a data source for the reason that this region has a 

teacher who has had certification from 2007 to 2018. In addition, 

the author chose elementary school considering that the 

institution is the fundamental basis of the education process at an 

early stage which portraits the teachers in elementary schools as 

ones who will determine the ability of students in the next stage 

of education. The informants in this paper consisted of the 

management committee of the teacher certification in the 

Tamiang District Education Office (of 2 people), elementary 

school teachers who had received certification (5 people) and 1 

school supervisor. 

 

2. Result and Discussion 

2.1. Analysis of Implementation of Primary School 

Teacher Certification Policies in Kuala Simpang 

District, Aceh Tamiang District 

 

Edward III (Edward, 1980) states that policy implementation is 

the stage of policy-making where policymaking is a part of 

legislative action, issuance of executive orders, submission of 

decisions or result for the inferior, or the promulgation of 

regulations and policy consequences for the people affected. 

Referring to the theory by Edward III, the implementation of the 

policy is influenced by five factors, namely: Communication, 

Resources, Disposition (Attitudes of TheImplementer) and 

Structure of Bureaucracy. 

 

2.1.1. Communication 

In teacher certification, communication is where the 

policymakers deliver information towards the policy 

implementers and then forwarded to the certification participants. 

These ways of information delivery from the policy implementers 

to the certification participants are in the form of socialization. In 

the next section, three communication factors will be discussed, 

namely the delivery of messages, clarity and consistency. 

 

2.1.1.1. Delivery of Message 

Message delivery is the initial stage of communication. In the 

implementation of the teacher’s certification, the information is 

delivered through socialization. If the socialization runs 

smoothly, the implementation process will run effectively, and 

vice versa. The data found shows that since 2007 the Education 

Agency of Tamiang Regency has carried out socialization on 

teacher certification. The socialization activities were conducted 

twice a year from 2007-2011. The source who delivered the 

socialization activity was able to convey information clearly and 

had experience with the teacher certification program. From 2012 

until now, the socialization has not been conducted again, 

therefore, the certification candidates must be active to find 

information about the certification through friends, the internet 

and the website of the Ministry of National Education. 

 

 2.1.1.2. Clarity 

A policy made by the policymakers must contain clear objectives. 

The clarity of policy objectives needs to be communicated 

properly with the implementers. Implementation of the policy 

must be accepted by all personnel and those must understand it 



 

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clearly and accurately regarding the purpose and objectives of the 

policy made. The certification program in Tamiang Regency is 

intended to asses the professionalism of the teachers by taking the 

test with the targeted value in order to obtain an educator 

certificate stating that the teacher is professional. But this 

statement has contradiction with the one stated by the teacher who 

has gone the certification process who said that the purpose of the 

certification policy is unclear, because if you want to asses the 

professionalism of teachers only from their competency test 

scores, the officer from the headquarter office should 

immediately come to review the performance of the certification 

candidates, because there are still many teachers with adequate 

quality but are not certified. Based on the experience of an 

informant who is a certified teacher, the information obtained is 

as follows: 

 

"The information given at the time of socialization is quite clear, 

but we were not given the certification manual, and indeed the 

purpose of this certification is to see the professionalism of the 

teacher, but not necessarily from the initial competency test and 

after the PLPG test, in my opinion, it is better for the authorized 

officers to come down to schools to directly reviews the 

performance/expertise of a teacher when they teach in the class. 

 

2.1.1.3. Consistency 

According to Edward III, the order given in the implementation 

of the policy must be consistent and clear to be stipulated or 

implemented. If the order was given often changes or 

inconsistent, it may cause confusion for the implementer. 

Therefore consistency must also receive attention in a 

communication. Consistency in this study can be seen from the 

implementation of the regulations applied. It can be stated based 

on the data above data that in the implementation of the teacher 

certification policy in the Kuala Simpang District, Aceh Tamiang 

Regency is still not consistent where the regulations themselves 

still change frequently every year. These changes lead to 

inconsistent policy and are overwhelming for the policy 

implementers and teachers who receive the certification. There 

are several problems which might be causing this inconsistency 

in certification policies, namely consistently change regulations 

and implementation which are happening every year and the 

longer the regulation is the more difficult it will be for teachers, 

where the competency test score standards are high and 

difficulties of using computer-generated exams while there are 

still many teachers who are not able to use the technology. As 

mentioned by a certified teacher in the interview as follows: 

 

"Certification regulations often change without being previously 

socialized to us every year thus creating confusion and the 

regulations are increasingly complicated, where the test scores 

have to be high and test using computers, where there are still 

teachers who are confused about using the computer during the 

test" 

 

2.1.2. Resources 

Resources are useful for supporting the implementation of a 

policy. Without adequate resources, the implementation of a 

policy will be disrupted. 

 

2.1.2.1. Staff 

Resources are one of the factors that must be present in the 

implementation of the policy if the staff of the policy implementer 

is lacking in terms of their amount, then the wellbeing of the 

policy will be disrupted. Likewise, if the staff does not have the 

competence, the policy will not be optimally run. Resources in 

implementing the teacher certification policy are in the staff 

whose carry out the teacher certification program. In the context 

of this paper, the staff in question were the staff of the Aceh 

Tamiang Education Agency. The staff of the Aceh Tamiang 

Education Agency is responsible for the successful 

implementation of the teacher certification program in the Kuala 

Simpang District. The number of staff in this area can be 

considered to be insufficient and sometimes lead to long lines of 

the queue when submitting the teacher certification files. Whereas 

for the service of the resources is quite excellent where each work 

is conducted properly but there is still embezzlement of funds and 

bribery conducted by the certification committee staff in the 

education department in collecting the certification files. 

 

 2.1.2.2. Information  

All information regarding the certification program should be 

obtained by the teacher through the regional Education Agency. 

The teacher is the object of the certification policy and the Aceh 

Tamiang Education Agency is the regulator and board of the 

teacher, Therefore the agency must play an active role in 

providing information for the teachers. From this factor, it can be 

stated that teachers receive get information quite well, even 

though the information they obtained must be received through 

the principal or operator. The process of delivering information 

carried out by the Education Agency is carried out with assistance 

from the operator /principal. 

 

2.1.2.3. Authority 

Authority is one an important component in implementing policy. 

The implementing board of the teacher certification policy has a 

certain authority in order to be able to implement the policies 

imposed. The implementing board must not violate the authority 

of other implementing agencies. Implementers of teacher 

certification policy must get rid of their desire to take advantage 

of individuals or groups. Currently, the staff from the Education 



 

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Agency have used their respective authorities in accordance with 

their positions. 

 

2.1.2.4. Facility 

Facilities are an important factor in implementing policy. An 

organization which has sufficient and competent staff if it is not 

supported by adequate facilities, the implementation will be 

hampered. The facilities in the implementation of the teacher are 

computer rooms, as well as AC, which is a facility to held the 

socialization for the certification participants, as well as facilities 

in the PLPG (Teacher Professional Training and Education) 

training in the headquarter for competency tests for the 

certification participants who must receive attention therefore the 

implementation of the policy can be implemented well. 

 

The facilities of the Aceh Tamiang Education Agency to for the 

socialization are still lacking where there is still no air-

conditioning equipment available and with the number of 

participants, it may set back the comfort of participants of the 

socialization. In implementing the Teacher Professional Training 

and Education (PLPG), the learning room facilities are adequate, 

the module is provided by the implementer, as well as 

accommodation, consumption, and transport facilities are funded 

by the certification organizers, but as time goes on, the teachers 

who take PLPG in 2015 the transport costs were no longer 

covered by the certification organizer. And for the year 2018 the 

facilities for the certification participants have been significantly 

reduced, one of which is for accommodation costs where teachers 

must pay for their own lodging during the training held for 3 

months, as well as for the transportation costs, to the point where 

there are teachers who resign as certification participants due to 

the facilities which are alarmingly inadequate. 

 

2.1.3. Disposition 

Disposition plays an important role in the success or failure of the 

implementation of a policy. Disposition is the attitude or 

character of the implementor. Disposition will determine the 

success of policy implementation. If the implementer has a 

positive attitude, he/she may be able to run the policy well. A 

positive attitude is shown by the ability to conduct tasks properly, 

responsibility and sincerity in carrying out their duties. And if the 

implementer of the policy has a negative attitude, they won't be 

able to implement the policy with correct, the implementation of 

the policy will also be hampered. These negative attitudes usually 

pose as lazy attitude, lack of motivation and lack of awareness of 

their responsibilities. The disposition is divided into three parts, 

namely: disposition effects, placement of staff, and incentives. 

3.1.3.1. Disposition Effect 

The effect of the Disposition in this paper is focused on 

commitment. Commitment is proven by how the implementor in 

implementing the policies, goals or changes as well as changes 

that have been achieved by the implementors for the teacher 

certification program policies. If the implementation has been 

conducted effectively, then the implementers must acknowledge 

what to be done and the ability to implement it. 

 

The staff has committed to working properly thus the 

implementation of the teacher certification policy is going well, 

besides that the staff also support this policy, therefore, the 

teachers can live in a better life and as a motivation for the 

teacher's enthusiasm in their professional life. The teachers argue 

that there are still some parties who reluctant with the tasks and 

the rules set by policymakers. With this attitude, the teacher 

cannot work optimally. As mentioned by one of the certified 

teachers below: 

 

"I am very supportive of this policy,  as a teacher who received 

the certification I have the obligations such as required to teach at 

least 24 hours a week, must complete the syllabus, as well as 

making lesson/learning plans. Indeed, after the certification, there 

are many teachers with improved living standards but also the 

certification comes with many demands and responsibility, or in 

other words, the workload is increasing, and some teachers also 

complain the same. 

 

2.1.3.2. Placement of Staff 

The policymakers must arrange and place their staff appropriately 

and selectively. Appropriate placement of staff will ensure good 

policy implementation. In order for the implementation of the 

policy to run optimally, staff who are in the implementation of the 

policy must be placed according to their respective expertise. In 

the implementation of the teacher certification program, the staff 

placement in question is the staff placement of the Aceh Tamiang 

Regency Education Agency. In the Aceh Tamiang that staff 

placement has been adequately placed according to their 

respective expertise and fields, the staff are not selected but 

instead the leader directly appoints who is placed in the field of 

the certification program, then is given a letter of assignment to 

carry out the teacher certification program, then the staff is given 

training they required. 

 

2.1.3.3. Incentives 

Incentives are given to encourage one's motivation to carry out 

tasks. In a teacher certification program, incentives are given to 

the teachers who have received an educator certificate. Providing 

incentives for the teacher certification program is referred to as a 

professional allowance. Professional allowance is obtained by 

teachers who have received an educator certificate. Teachers who 

have received an educator certificate are given benefits to 

improve their welfare. The provision of these benefits is intended 



 

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to motivate the teachers in increasing their professionalism. 

Based on the results of interviews regarding the incentives, the 

official staff received the incentives right from the Regional 

Budgetary Funds. The incentives are given with the amount of 

equal to one-time salary for every 3 months, the certification 

allowance fund is indeed received by the certification teachers at 

each period but the allowance often given late. 

 

2.1.4. Bureaucratic Structure 

The bureaucratic structure according to Edward III is divided into 

SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and the sharing or 

disposition of responsibilities. SOP is very useful in order to make 

the bureaucray system run consistently, effectively, efficiently, 

and not conflicted with the existing regulations. 

 

1.  Standard Operational Procedures 

The SOP is a list of governance in conducting certain matters 

which contains the instructions and regulation within the 

organization. Implementers of the policy must carry out their 

activities based on exist the SOPs consistently, effectively and 

efficiently. In the context of implementing teacher certification 

policy, the SOP is replaced with technical guidelines. Technical 

guidelines are similar to the SOP, which regulates the teacher 

certification process to be implemented properly. 

 

2. Distribution of Responsibility 

The availability of clear regulation regarding the authority and 

responsibility of implementing the teacher certification program 

has already been provided by the District Education Office 

specifically on the main tasks of each staff. The disposition of 

authority and responsibility run well along with the coordination 

of each party. 

 

2.2. The role of ceritification for elementary school 

teacher’s professionalism in Kuala Simpang 

District 

 

In order to become a teacher with a high level of professionalism, 

real efforts are needed as expected for the improvement of the 

students and national education. Through certification, teachers 

are required to become professionals because certified teachers 

mean they have fulfilled the competencies in both pedagogical, 

professional, and personality competencies. Teachers who have 

received certification are ones who have the expertise in their 

respective fields of education, therefore, they are referred to as 

professional teachers. 

 

Teachers who already have the certificate are expected to carry 

out their duties professionally. Various tasks conducted by the 

certified teachers are a form of the teacher’s commitment to 

continue to improve their quality. This commitment can be 

demonstrated through consistent or improvement in performance 

in accordance with the expectations and goals of national 

education. When an educator already has a certificate, people will 

assume that the educator is a professional educator. The 

indication is because the person has passed the competency test. 

However, there is no guarantee that an educator who has passed 

the competency test will become a professional educator. 

Professionalism is a term obtained after going through a certain 

process. 

 

Based on Law Number 14 of 2005, the purpose of teacher 

certification is to see the professionalism of the teachers. But in 

reality, based on the data found it shows that certification has not 

played any role in the professionalism of the elementary school 

teachers in Kuala Simpang District, Aceh Tamiang. This can be 

seen from the lack of teacher’s quality in their professional 

competencies such as the teachers' ability to work on the Learning 

Plan, even though the plan is very important for the teachers to 

teach in class, but in reality there are many certification teachers 

who employ other people to work on their learning plan. The 

current change in the curriculum from KTSP to Curriculum 13 

caused the teachers to have difficulties in making their learning 

plan. 

 

Then teacher lack of ability in the use of technology has led to 

unprofessionalism in creating lesson plans and obtaining subject 

matter. Based on the data found, it stated that there are still some 

teachers who have not fully mastered their subject matter even 

though they have received certification. This is because the 

teachers only rely on their existing knowledge without trying to 

obtain new information or knowledge from other media and there 

is no motivation for the teachers to seek more, even other data 

shows that when teaching hours are empty many teachers prefer 

to open their gadgets rather than learning further or gaining 

knowledge. 

 

Certification also has not played a significant role in the teacher’s 

professionalism in the field of personality competence. One of the 

inhibiting factors in teacher professionalism for personality 

competence is a lack of discipline, where without supervision 

from their supervisor there are still teachers who are found to be 

late and have lack of responsibility in conducting their job. Until 

now there a quite number of teachers who have done the 

certification process. But not all of them have the quality of 

education personnel in accordance with the predetermined 

competencies, for field namely Pedagogic, Professional and 

personality competencies. Additionally, no matter what policy 

being implemented by the government, if the educator hired is 

unqualified then the purpose of the policy itself will not be 



 

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achieved, and no matter how excellent the proposed curriculum 

is if the educators are not able to implement it well then it will be 

a useless measure. Besides having a great skill of teaching, 

teachers are also required to have extensive knowledge, wise 

attitude and socialize well, therefore, there is no guarantee that an 

educator who has received certification will become a 

professional educator. 

 

3. Conclussion 

The implementation of the elementary school teacher certification 

policy in Kuala Simpang District of Aceh Tamiang Regency has 

not been run effectively, this is due to poor facilities and 

infrastructure for its socialization and from 2012 until now there 

has not been any socialization of teacher certification. The related 

party from the Aceh Tamiang District Education Office has not 

been able to provide the best solutions towards the problems 

faced by the teachers, especially in responding to the inconsistent 

regulation in almost every year in the implementation of the 

candidates for teacher certification. Some of the obstacles found 

such as the inability of teachers to access information through the 

internet. Now, along with the development of the internet media 

(through the website) which has become more dominant for 

delivering and obtaining information rather than for face-to-face 

socialization. In the socialization of teacher certification, it is 

found that the guidebook for the teacher certification has not been 

distributed/ or not distributed equally to each teacher. The 

distribution of this guidebook is one of the jobs of the Aceh 

Tamiang District Education Office in terms of sharing 

information. Additionally, inconsistent regulations that are 

always changing has become an obstacle for teachers in 

participating in teacher certification. Based on these constraints, 

it can be stated that certification has not played a significant role 

in the professionalism of the certified teachers. 

 

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