Discussion of Education Issues, Bupati Kaimana Visits TNP2K Secretariat

18 March 2014

The Bupati of Kaimana, Mairuma Mathias, accompanied by the Chairman of the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda), Head of Education and Department Head of Public Works in Kaimana, West Papua, today visited the office of the Secretariat of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) to discuss poverty alleviation in the region through education.

The purpose of the meeting was to assess the impact of incentives given to teachers for providing educational services. Have additional incentives in ​​Kaimana lead to an increase in teachers’ performance? That question is key as the government is currently considering boosting incentives to teachers across various levels of education.

TNP2K Executive Secretary Bambang Widianto said the results of the analysis show that such rewards are not directly linked to teachers’ performance. These findings are supported by a high level of teacher absenteeism, especially in remote areas where incentives and certifications have been given. This suggests that a comprehensive field evaluation needs to be conducted so that government efforts can be more effective.

Mairuma said education plays an important role in poverty reduction. Therefore, he and the Kaimana kabupaten government are committed to school-aged children in the area obtaining a good education. One way was to allocate an education budget that is equal to that set by the state.

"Currently, we have committed an education budget of nearly 21 percent, which is in line with the commitment of the central government," said Mairuma.

In addition, parties continue to strive for success in the national education programmes implemented in Kaimana.

"We also implement matriculation programmes so that high school graduates can go to good colleges," he said.

Widianto said it was unfortunate that rewards given to teachers were not improving performance figures. Many teachers receiving rewards do not provide good educational services, while others choose instead to take the afternoons off.

As such, the Government of Kabupaten Kaimana, during their visit to TNP2K, would like to assess what can be done to improve conditions.

Widianto said that, in principle, Kaimana’s local government and TNP2K share the same vision. Therefore, TNP2K teams will provide support and work together with the local government officials. In future, it is hoped that Kaimana could be used as a model to critically evaluate the implementation of incentives of teachers, especially as only a limited number of areas are currently able to conduct such assessments.

TNP2K also presented an alternative model for executing incentives to teachers in the Kaimana kabupten, which was welcomed by Mairuma, and who said the proposal would be applied immediately in the kabupten.

In relation to education programmes, Widianto also asked that the government of Kaimana kabupaten, particularly its department of education, support the implementation of the Cash Transfers for Poor Students (BSM) programme and encourage more students from poor families to access the programme. In addition, Widianto called on the government of Kaimana kabupaten to support the implementation of the 2013 school curriculum, as it has the potential to fundamentally change education in Indonesia.