Accreditation of International School is Required

The Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) assign schools for the Cooperation Education Unit or international schools to join the accreditation. The status of accreditation is a guarantee for the community of the quality of the school.

Moreover, most schools with international labels put high prices on their students. So far there are no rules that require international schools to conduct accreditation.

Along with the change in labeling of international schools into SPK (Satuan Pendidikan Kerjasama), new regulations were issued so that SPK education providers followed the accreditation process. Secretary of the Directorate General (Sesdirjen) of Primary and Secondary Education (Dikdasmen) of the Ministry of Education and Culture Thamrin Kasman said, the Ministry of Education and Culture’s guidance on SPK began with teachers, infrastructure advice, but the most crucial was the matter of accreditation.

He explained, so far there had been no SPK that had been accredited because the regulations on SPK were also new. However, at this time the SPK was asked to follow the accreditation process as a requirement for SPK to be recognized by the public. At present there are 503 SPK schools.

Every year the Ministry of Education and Culture is always monitoring to see whether the components of the SPK requirements have been met by schools. However, for the matter of accreditation, he asked the SPK to directly consult BAN-SM which is an independent institution so that information about accreditation can be accurate.

Ministry of Education and Culture only prepares the process. “In addition, the SPK must also consult with the regional government,” he said during the School Management Seminar in Jakarta. It is known, the Cooperation Education Unit (SPK) is a change of status from an international school that is organized or managed on the basis of implementation cooperation, or management between foreign educational institutions and Indonesian educational institutions on formal or non-formal channels.

Eduspec Education Observer Indra Charismiadji explained that the problem of this SPK which numbered 503 schools was one of them was due to the limited number of Ministry of Education and Culture staff overseeing. On the other hand, SPK is also heavily interfered with by the education office.

“So the path is not clear. “This SPK regulation is under the Ministry of Education and Culture, but now the education office goes into it,” he said. He argued, the Ministry of Education and Culture should have a special team to manage this school. Because, the effect is now, many SPK whose quality is not clear because there is no strict supervision.

In addition, Indra also strongly agreed that there was accreditation for SPK so that the public would know which SPK quality was. If there is no accreditation, it will be very dangerous for the community if they are trapped in paying for SPK schools which are expensive but in fact not good.

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