Ketapang District's Bid to Improve the Quality of Primary Education with TNP2K

28 October 2014

On Tuesday, 28 October 2014, Junaid as Head of Sub-District Education Services Unit (UPPK) in Nanga Tayap opened an event aimed at raising awareness of randomised school trials for Improving Teachers’ Performance and Accountability (KIAT Guru) in the sub-district’s meeting room. It was the follow up to a Memorandum of Understanding and show of cooperative support between TNP2K and Ketapang District to improve the quality of basic education by increasing teacher attendance and public involvement. The event was attended by members of the general public and government, including the Regional Planning Development Agency (Bappeda), the Department of Education, teachers, principals and community leaders.

The event aimed to provide the public with comprehensive information on the research being conducted and encourage active participation of communities in encouraging teachers to attend classes. “The Government of Ketapang District welcomes this programme because, if it works, it will mostly benefit the children, parents, and of course, the teachers themselves,” said Yuswansyah, Bappenda of Ketapang. Four schools in Nanga Tayap District – in the villages of Siantau Raya, Nanga Tayap and Pangkalan Teluk – have been the elected to take part in the trial.

Similar activities were conducted on Wednesday (29/10) in Tumbang Titi District, which was opened by Monri, Head of UPPK in Tumbang Titi. In his opening remarks, he briefly described the aims and objectives of KIAT Guru.

Tumbang Titi District Representative, Ardi Oyong, also stressed the importance of the role of teachers in primary education adding that teacher absenteeism should be a public concern. Furthermore, he explained, “Primary education is an important foundation to overall education. Here, teachers are begin to help build the ideas and notions of their students.”

Cooperation with communities is very important to this research. “The success of these events depends entirely on the teachers, parents and community members.” This activity has come to us. Now, it is up to us. The responsibility has been placed on our shoulders and Tumbang Titi together the six schools will surely succeed,” he said, closing his speech using a Malay dialect.

Randomised schools will be treated in accordance according with the KIAT Guru research framework. Six schools have been selected in six villages across Tumbang Titi Districts: Belaban Tujuh, Beringin Rayo, Nanga Kelampai, Petebang Jaya, Titi Baru and Pemuatan Jaya.

Minutes of the randomised school results were then signed by the representatives of the six schools and approved by stakeholders, including the Department of Education.