Pelaksanaan pendidikan percuma untuk sekolah menengah atas di Sulawesi Selatan Indonesia

Abstract

Constitution of the State of Indonesia in 1945 has explained that the government must bear the cost of education for all citizens without distinction between the rich and the poor. The implementation of free education was formally executed in South Sulawesi in 2008 in Gowa Regency, Republic of Indonesia. However, until now many studies have found that free education is implemented only to safeguard the interests of Government and the District Council reputation without thinking of the funding, facility, and quality of education. On the other hand, this negative perspective does not affect the District Council to implement free education. Therefore, this research is significant in order to explore and understand the implementation of free education at the district level. The design of case study and grounded theory are used to understand and explore this phenomenon. Data sources are documents, interviews and observations. Data collections start with compiling documents at district and school levels. Meanwhile individual interview data were gathered from 46 participants, selected using purposive samplings, who comprised of executive officers, legislative and school stakeholders. The data from documents, interviews and observations are analyzed using open coding, selective coding and axial coding by using NVivo software. The study found that there are 10 processes in the implementation of free education system at district level which are summarized in five phases: the role and functions of the District Education Bureau, the financial system, financial distribution, financial effectiveness and financial division. The sources of free education fund in school are 40 per cent from the Provincial Council and 60 per cent from the District Education Bureau. All funding is handled by the District Education Bureau. The study also found that conflicts exist in schools due to the inconsistency in terms of educational financing, school facilities, delay in the distribution of education fund to schools, limitation in terms of learning facilities and the occurrence of open and close transparency. Therefore, to overcome the weaknesses of the financing of education, it is necessary to manage the finance at school level through financial adaptation and changing the system of financing. The results of this study is presented in a form of Grounded Theory, which states that there are three stages of development in free education fund (TT-PPPP), namely the transformation of the loop structure, financial transformation of device system and the transformation of social paradigm. Finally, this study contributes ideas and direction to various parties about education funding commitments at the District and School level in identifying the core needs in terms of achievement of the implementation of free education in Indonesia.