Index

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the condition of non-formal educational programs (NEP) and units in each region in Indonesia. A survey method comprising questionnaires, interviews and documentation was conducted in January 2016 to identify programs and units throughout the country. The sample was determined by purposive sampling inside and outside Java Island regions. Data were analyzed by reviewing previous accreditation analysis in 2015 reported by the National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education (NAB-NEP). The results shows that there were 7,757 NEP programs and units identified as accredited by NAB-NEP. The national distribution of NEP admittances ready for accreditation was dominated by Java region (2,301 or 48.4%) in 2016. Although this was proportional to the number of NEPs in the six provinces of Java, it appears that NEPs from other provinces were less active or unable to meet the requirements. The other provinces can be summarized as follows: Sumatra (1,252 or 26.3%), Kalimantan (544 or 11.4%), Sulawesi (275 or 5.8%), NTB and NTT (121 or 2.5%), Papua and West Papua (30 or 0.6%), and Maluku and North Maluku (3 or 0.1%).

Keywords: Non-formal education, Accreditation, Education program, Education units.

DOI: 10.20448/804.4.1.171.183

Citation | Suwandi; Dewa Komang Tantra (2019). Identification of Non-Formal Education Programs and Analysis of Accreditation in Indonesia. American Journal of Education and Learning, 4(1): 171-183.

Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Funding : This study received no specific financial support.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

History : Received: 20 February 2019 / Revised: 27 March 2019 / Accepted: 30 May 2019 / Published: 16 July 2019 .

Publisher: Online Science Publishing

1. INTRODUCTION

The quality of education considerably varies across different educational institutions. This can be observed in terms of numerous aspects, whether related to instrumental inputs such as curriculum, teaching staff, and teaching materials, or environmental inputs such as physical environments and principal’s managerial skills. The other aspects can be related to process, such as pedagogy, facilities, infrastructure, output including test results and graduates success (Supriyatno et al., 2013).

The Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20 Year 2003 on the National Education System states that non-formal education (NEP) represents a form of national education as it is treated equally to the other educational institutions. Non-formal education, as part of Indonesia’s lifelong learning objective has demonstrated its role in developing productive and high-quality human resources.
The Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 13 Year 2015 on the Second Amendment to the Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 19 Year 2005 regarding National Education Standards explains that NEP programs and units can be accredited by the government by controlling the education quality.

Accreditation is one of the steps in education system in ensuring schools’ high levels of quality. This includes the reformation and diversification of curriculum as the main tools to shape students with the competency standards that are responsive to local conditions (Ajrina et al., 2017).

The educators’ qualification standards has been developed to meet the demands of the professionals that are eligible in performing task, creating education funding standards for each educational unit, corresponding to principles of equity and justice, and implementing education management in open and various system (Ajrina et al., 2017).

The accreditation management are defined under the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Number 59 Year 2012 about the National Accreditation Board (NAB) (Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, 2015).

The most significant challenge in implementing accreditation is the difficulty of non-formal educational institutions to meet the three standards: content standards, process standards, and educators’ standards. This is particularly related to the graduate competence, curriculum actualization, evaluation process, and curriculum implementation materials (syllabus and learning implementation plan). In case of non-formal education, the three national standards should focus on the accreditation of NEP programs and units (MECRI, 2015).

The accreditation policy furtherly specify the government’s policy towards to non-formal education that is need to be accredited to be able to contribute in improving the quality of human resources (Ajrina et al., 2017). Therefore, the government must provide assurances to the public that accredited, non-formal educational institutions are appropriate, accountable, qualified, and able to offer value in improving community knowledge, understanding and skills. 

In order to achieve and improve on these objectives, it is necessary to identify the condition of non-formal education programs and units in each region of Indonesia including  their distribution and accreditation across all regions in Indonesia.

2. METHOD

This study was conducted in January 2016 by focusing on non-formal education programs and units throughout Indonesia. Data were collected by purposive sampling of population characteristics in all provinces of Indonesia (Sudjarwo & Basrowi, 2006).

A blueprint data was developed based on eight Education Standards (ES), namely graduate competency standards, content standards, process standards, education standards and education personnel, standard of facilities and infrastructure, management standards, education financing standards, and education assessment standards. Data were collected through interviewing the members of National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education in the headquarters, non-formal education accreditation assessors, managers of non-formal education institutions, and the members of National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education at the regional level. The accreditation value was obtained based on the range of values ​​generated from the 8 Education Standards Table 1. These data were subsequently analyzed using the quantitative descriptive analysis method (Sudjarwo & Basrowi, 2006).

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Distribution of Accreditation by Province

The distribution of accreditation by BAN-NEP in Indonesia in 2015 by province are presented in the Table 2.

Based on the general distribution of NEP programs and units in each province, West Java had the highest number of registered programs and units for accreditation (837 or 17.6%), followed by East Java (452 or 9.5%), Central Java (410 or 8.62%), Banten (309 or 6.5%), West Sumatra (305 or 6.41%), and Special Region of Yogyakarta (247 or 5.2%). All other provinces stood below 5% for registered programs and units.

This result corresponds with the findings of the National Accreditation Board for School / Madrasah (2010) that the majority of educational institutions in Java (93%) have been accredited as good or excellent, whereas the outside region of Java was only 48% rated in the same category.  West Java, East Java, Central Java, Banten, West Sumatra, and Special Region of Yogyakarta were the provinces with the highest number of NEP programs and units registering for accreditation. This expected as the level of public awareness to attend various forms of educational institution in the NEP unit was very high as the matter of fact that these areas have the largest number of NEP units. Indeed, NEP unit managers in these areas are driven to compete in achieving the best accreditation rating, so they can attract more students. 

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

3.2. Distribution of Accreditation By NEP Cluster

Meanwhile, the distribution of accreditation based on the NEP cluster conducted by BAN-NEP in Indonesia in 2015 is presented in the following figure.

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

As shown in Figure 1, the Early Childhood Education and Training Program (ECETP) contributed the highest level of admittance in 2015 (3,471 or 73%), followed by the Course Institution and Training (CIT) with 819 or 17%, and the Community Learning Center (CLC) with 467 or 10% of the total accreditation process.

ECETP became the most registered NEP unit to be accredited because the entire community has been aware of it by sending their children to NEP. Moreover, many elementary schools indirectly require that students can provide early childhood certificate for enrollment. This stimulates ECETP unit managers to register for accreditation of their institutions. In accordance, the managers of the Community Skills Institute (CIT) have been also aware of the importance of accreditation since the majority of people seeking employment need an CIT skill certificate, such as from the CLC.

3.3. Distribution of Accreditation by Province And NEP Cluster

The distribution of accreditation by BAN-NEP in Indonesia in 2015 in each province and NEP cluster is presented in the following table.

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

As shown in Table 3 West Java contributed the highest number of registered NEP programs and units to be accredited. However, from the clusters of NEP, with the highest rates of accreditation based on the program and unit of ECETP was found in West Java (696 or 20.05%) that is followed by East Java (291 or 8.38%), West Sumatra (227 or 6.54%), Banten (221 or 6.37%), Central Java (216 or 6.22%), South Kalimantan (198 or 5.7%), Special Region of Yogyakarta (193 or 5.56%), and South Sulawesi (176 or 5.07%).

The program and unit of CIT with the highest registration in 2015 was Central Java with 163 or 19.9%, followed by West Java (122 or 14.9%), East Java (106 or 12.94%), Banten (59 or 7.2%), Bali (53 or 6.47%), and West Sumatra (45 or 5.49%).

The program and unit of CLC with the highest registration in 2015 was North Sumatra at 69 or 14.78%, followed by East Java (55 or 11.78%), Special Region of Yogyakarta (41 or 8.78), Bali (40 or 8.57), West Sumatra (33 or 7.07%), Central Java (31 or 6.64%), and Banten (29 or 6.21%). The other provinces all registered programs and units were under 5%.

Ajrina et al. (2017) concluded that the motivation of non-formal educational institutions to register their institutions for accreditation is dependent on the successful socialization of accreditation. The more frequent the socialization by the accreditation board, the higher the motivation of non-formal educational institutions to become accredited. Conversely, the less frequent of socialization are related to the more limited levels of accreditation. Therefore, the number of institutions registering for accreditation is also limited.

3.4. Distribution of the NEP Program and Unit Based on Accreditation Rating

The distribution of accreditation by BAN-NEP in 2015 in Indonesia based on accreditation rank is shown in the following table.

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

Based on the data in Table 4, it can be seen that those accredited as status B amounted to 1,976 or 41.54%, almost 50% of the total accredited NEP programs and units. This was followed by the C ranking at 1,637 or 34.41%, Not Accredited at 451 or 9.48%, the A ranking at 385 or 8.09%, Canceled at 16 or 0.34%, and finally postponed accreditation at just 1 or 0.02%.

In the first stage of accreditation, BAN-NEP continues to process institutions’ applications using the old instruments (17 program instruments + 3 unit instruments) of 330 institutions. Therefore, the status can be described as ‘Accredited and Not Accredited,’ with total accredited institutions number of 291 or 6.12%. The results of Subijanto Dan Wiratno (2012) study also concluded that accredited educational institutions with A number only 6%, B at a significant 80%, and C at 14%. These data were the representation of the educational institutions quality in Indonesia.

3.5. Distribution of Accreditation Rating by Province

The distribution of accreditation rating by BAN-NEP in Indonesia regions in is presented in the following Table 5.

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

As previously described, there were 291 (6.12%) accredited institutions from a total of 330 institutions in the first stage of accreditation, which the institution only ranked as ‘Accredited and Not Accredited’. If accreditation by province is ranked, it can be seen that Central Java represented the region with the highest accreditations records (67 or 23.0%), followed by West Java (40 or 13.75%), Special Region of Yogyakarta (35 or 12.03%), East Java (35 or 12.03%), Banten (18 or 6.19%), and Riau Islands (17 or 5.84%).

In 2015, Accredited A institutions were primarily obtained in West Java (81 or 21.04%), followed by East Java (71 or 18.44%), and Central Java (40 or 10.39%). Accredited B institutions were mostly seen in West Java (399 or 20.19%), followed by East Java (201 or 10.17%), Central Java (173 or 8.76%), Special Region of Yogyakarta (122 or 6.17%), South Sulawesi (100 or 5.06%), and Banten (99 or 5.01%).

Accredited C institutions were mostly obtained in West Java (265 or 16.19%), followed by Banten (157 or 9.59%), West Sumatra (132 or 8.06%), East Java (121 or 7.39%), Jambi (98 or 5.99%), Central Java (95 or 5.8%), and North Sumatra (94 or 5.74%).

Unaccredited status was mostly obtained in West Sumatra (57 or 12.64%), followed by West Java (50 or 11.09%), South Kalimantan (43 or 9.53%), Central Java (35 or 7.76%), North Sumatra (30 or 6.65%), Banten (27 or 5.99%), Jambi (26 or 5.76%), East Java (24 or 5.32%), and East Nusa Tenggara (23 or 5.1%).

The canceled accreditation status was only obtained in 11 provinces, which the largest number was found in West Sumatra (3 or 18.8%), followed by West Java, West Kalimantan, and Riau (2 or 12.5%), and Bali, Banten, Special Region of Yogyakarta, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Bangka Belitung Archipelago, and Riau Archipelago (1 or 6.3%).

Postponed status was only obtained in Banten caused by the institution attempted to bribe the assessor member of the BAN-NEP. As the consequences, the plenary meeting decidied that the accreditation result would be postponed for one year.

Moreover, NEP unit can receive A rank when the obtained average of eight educational standards value more than 86 from the range 0-100. The NEP educational unit will be ranked as B when the obtained score is in the range of 76-85. Meanwhile, rank C is obtained when the score is only 66-75. If the NEP unit scores below 56, it categorized as unaccredited.

3.6. Distribution of ECETP Programs and Units Based on Accreditation Ranking

The distribution of ECETP program and units based on accreditation rank conducted by BAN-NEP in Indonesia in 2015 is presented below table.

Based on Table 6, the Accredited B ECETP programs and units dominated the distribution by 1,534 or 44.19%, which is almost half of the entire accredited ECETP programs and units. This was followed by Accredited C status (1,150 or 33.13%), Accredited A status (297 or 8.56%), Not Accredited (285 or 8.21%), canceled (13 or 0.37%), and postponed (1 or 0.03%). As mentioned before, in the first period of the accreditation process, BAN-NEP was still using the old instrument to process accreditation of 330 institutions, with the number of accredited ECETP programs and units of191 or 5.5%. In addition, Kiam (2014) revealed that the implementation of non-formal educational program policy on early childhood education (ECETP) has been very successful, as the majority (81%) of early childhood education has received B accreditation ranking, compared with Accredited C (12%) and Accredited A (7%).

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

3.7. Distribution of CIT Programs and Units Based on Accreditation Ranking

The distribution of CIT programs and units based on accreditation rank by BAN-NEP in Indonesia in 2015 is presented in the Table 7.

As shown in Table 7, the Accredited C institutions were the most common obtained by 322 or 39.32% of the total number of accreditedCIT programs and units. This was followed by Accredited B (241 or 29.43%), Not Accredited (114 or 13.92%), Accredited A (66 or 8.06%), Canceled (2 or 0.24%), and Accredited CIT using an old instrument (74 or 9.04%). In accordance, Chumaidi and Ismi (2004) have stated that the better the management of an educational institution, the greater the institution’s accountability. The level of accountability of an educational institution is presented by its accreditation rank. Lower accreditation ranking signifies that the educational institution is not accountable.  On the other hand, higher accreditation ranking allows educational institution to be seen as accountable to the community.

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

3.8. Distribution of CLC Programs and Units Based on Accreditation Ranking

The distribution of CLC programs and unitsby BAN-NEP in Indonesia in 2015 based on the accreditation rank described is shown in the Table 8.

It is revealed in Table 8 that the majority of CLC programs and units were Accredited B by  43.04% (201) of the total Accredited CLC. This is followed by Accredited C status (165 or 35.33%), Not Accredited (52 or 11.13%), Accredited A (22 or 4.71%), Canceled (1 or 0.21%), and Accredited CLC using an old instrument (26 or 5.57%). In accordance, Ajrina et al. (2017) have stated that the majority of non-formal educational institutions were accredited B (80.2%), followed by an accreditation ranking of C (14.2%) and accreditation  ranking of A (5.6%). This means that there are few high-quality non-formal educational institutions existed. Although, there are numbers of good educational institutions can be found.

Source: National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education, 2015.

The rank B was obtained by almost half of NEPs due to there were only small number of NEP units able to achieve score above 86 from the range of 0-100. Moreover, the majority of NEP units find it very difficult to meet all of the contents of the eight established standards. Many NEP units are satisfied with the rank B as they feel it is better than C. The managers of NEP units in Central Java, West Java, Special Region of Yogyakarta, East Java, Banten, and Riau Archipelago have demonstrated the greatest awareness of  accreditation. This was mostly due to high levels of public awareness to pursue education in NEP units such as in early childhood, Institute of Courses and Training (CIT), and Community Learning Center (CLC). The early childhood unit contributed the most accredited data as in each region the majority of NEP was ECETP. Indeed, the number of ECETP was higher than the other units of NEP. The majority of CLC programs and units based on the accreditation rank were Accredited B. This may be because CLC programs and units often attempt to achieve B ranking to prove their competence.

4. CONCLUSION

According to the results of data analysis, it can be concluded:

First, the general distribution of NEP programs and units based on accreditation rank revealed that the B ranking was the most common (1,976 or 41.54%), which was almost half of the total NEP programs and units accredited.

Second, the province with the most accredited NEP programs and units was Central Java, with a total of 67 or 23.0%. This was followed by West Java (40 or 13.75%), Special Region of Yogyakarta (35 or 12.03%), East Java (35 or 12.03%), Banten (18 or 6.19%), and Riau Islands (17 or 5.84%).

Third, the most common accreditation ranking of ECETP programs and units was the B ranking with total 1,534 institutions or 44.19% that is almost a half of the total number of accredited early childhood programs and units. This was followed by the C ranking (1,150 or 33.13%), A ranking (297 or 8.56%), Not Accredited (285 or 8.21%), Canceled (13 or 0.37%), and postponed result of accreditation (1 or 0.03%).

Fourth, of the general distribution of CIT programs and units was mostly ranked C by 322 or 39.32% of the total number of accreditedCIT programs and units.

Fifth, the CLC programs and units based was mostly ranked B by 201 or 43.04% of the total number of accredited CLC programs and units. This was followed by Accredited C with 165 or 35.33%, Not Accredited (52 or 11.13%), Accredited A (22 or 4.71%), and Canceled (1 or 0.21%).

5. RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the results, it can be suggested that there should be improvement made on the socialization of the three national standards namely; content standards, process standards, and educators standards. In addition, it is need to identify and locate all the non-formal education programs and units in each region in Indonesia down to the district/city level supplemented with information of their recent condition.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to thank Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia who has facilitated the author to conduct this research. In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge Chairman of BAN NEP Period 2012-2016 who has provided the widest opportunity to conduct this research.

REFERENCES

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