Banjar Center of Society Learning Activity
Pusat Kegiatan Belajar Mengajar Masyarakat
PKBM
Pusat Kegiatan Belajar Masyarakat (PKBM) adalah suatu wadah berbagai kegiatan pembelajaran masyarakat diarahkan pada pemberdayaan potensi untuk menggerakkan pembangunan di bidang sosial, ekonomi dan budaya.
Tujuan PKBM, memperluas kesempatan warga masyarakat, khususnya yang tidak mampu untuk meningkatkan pengetahuan, keterampilan dan sikap mental yang diperlukan untuk mengembangkan diri dan bekerja mencari nafkah. Dalam upaya menyamakan persepsi dan menyelaraskan penyelenggaraan PKBM, dengan ide dasar PKBM sebagai pusat kegiatan pendidikan luar sekolah, PKBM yang tumbuh dan berkembang berdasarkan kepentingan dan kemampuan masyarakat, maka perlu dikembangkan alat ukur kelayakan penyelenggaraan PKBM.
PKBM – Community Learning Centre in Indonesia
The Packet A Programme and the First Community Activities Centre
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The Packet A Programme has been implemented in almost all the villages of Indonesia since 1977 as a community-based out-of-school education programme. It was launched nationally because of the huge numbers of illiterates and the high rate of primary school dropouts in Indonesia. However, it is not only an illiteracy eradication programme, because initially the booklets in Packet A were suitable for pre-literacy and post-literacy programmes.
All of the organizers, facilitators and tutors for the programme are educated people who live in the villages. They are examples of saling asih, saling asah and saling asuh (mutual love, focus and care). They are educated in the sense that they have more education than their fellow villagers, even if it is only at the primary school level.
This Packet A programme is instrumental for other continuing education programmes, such as income-generating, quality-of-life improvement and other skill formation programmes. In this case study, we will elaborate on an innovative approach, highlighting the first PKBM ( Pusat Kegiantan Belajar Masyarakat – Community Learning Activities Centre) in Buana Mekar Baleendah Village.
The birth of this first PKBM and subsequently other PKBMs throughout the country is a result of the monetary-economic crises experienced by Indonesia since mid-July 1997.
In this centre, beside Packet A, other out-of-school education programmes are also being delivered. In short, one can say that PKBM is an all-encompassing centre for the various
out-of-school education programmes that are relevant to the needs of the people in the community.
PKBM Buana Mekar is located at Laswi Street No. 56, RT 09 RW 04, Baleendah Village, Baleendah Sub-district, Bandung District, West Java Province. Baleendah sub-district is
one of the sub-districts of Bandung district with a total land area of 3.949 square kilometres and a population of 101,022. All children aged 7 to 12 are in the primary school (15,072), but of those aged 13 to 14 (7,828), only about 73% (5,726) go to formal lower secondary schools.
PKBM Buana Mekar was created n October 1998 using a skills training centre of a private foundation ( Yayasan ) which for many years had not been functioning due to the absence of learners. This abandoned centre consists of classrooms, rooms for practice, library, dormitory, office and a sports venue.
The Community Chief for West Java Province, Mr. H. M. Rachmatulloh, happened to live in the Baleendah Sub-district. Knowing the present condition of the old centre, he called on Mr. H. Aruman Kusnadi, Bandung District Community education chief, Mr. Sunarya, the Baleendah Sub-district community education supervisor, and Mr. Hadi Bimantoro, the person in charge of the centre building. These officials joined by some informal leaders of the community held a meeting.
During the meeting, they discussed the condition of the centre and noted the fact that in Baleendah Sub-district, many people did not graduate from primary school, many were school dropouts, many primary education graduates did not continue learning due to poverty, and there were many unemployed people and illiterates. All of these people were in need of out-of-school educational programmes for the improvement of the quality of their lives.
The Yayasan who owned the old centre together with the community informal leaders and the community education officials agreed that the centre should be revitalized and used to help the have-nots in education. A written memorandum of understanding or a contract between the Yayasan and the community education supervisor was signed.
After the agreement was reached, other activities were planned, such as:
1) Appointing a management team for the PKBM,
2) Putting the name of the PKBM in front of the administrative building (Yayasan),
3) Developing learning programmes based on the real or expressed needs of the people in the community,
4) Assessing the resource potential in the community,
5) Recruiting tutors and skills instructors,
6) Designating learning facilities and
7) other activities related to funding.
The objectives of the PKBM are :
1) to organize community learning activities;
2) to improve the functional knowledge, information skills and mental attitude of the community members;
3) to develop entrepreneurial skills of the people to be used to earn a living.
The PKBM functions also as an information centre for various learning programmes, both offered by the PKBM itself, but also by other educational institutions which cooperate with the PKBM.
They are convinced that without some funds available, there will be no activity. They agreed to finance the learning activities in the spirit of gotong-royong (synergy or mutual assistance) by pooling all the financial resources from the Yayasan , the community and the government (community education). Because of the high commitment of all stakeholders, in less than one year (June 1999), the various learning programmes were being delivered by the PKBM.
These programmes include:
1) Functional literacy (including Packet A equivalent to Primary School) with 50 learners;
2) Packet B equivalent to lower secondary school with 84 learners;
3) An income-generating programme with 10 learners;
4) Instruction to one person who gets a fellowship;
5) skill learning courses, i.e. sewing with 20 learners, dressmaking with 20 learners, carpentry
with 44 learners;
6) An English language course with 25 learners;
7) Early childhood education or play groups for 26 children under 5; and
8) agriculture income-generation (growing chillies) with 44 learners.
But there are also other supporting activities such as integrated health, radio listener and television viewer groups, self-defense, scouting activities, and youth Red Cross.
Because PKBM Buana Mekar is still young, neither the organizers nor the managers are sure yet
whether this centre is what the community and the government really expect and want. However, the community does not bother much about what the government wants, because what matters really is – they said – how much the people feel that they need it, and are willing to support and strengthen it.
In addition, linkages and cooperation with interested organizations exist. For instance, PT Artista Pandora Tobietama (a wood and carpentry business) helps the PKBM to find buyers of the students’ products. Other donors are recruited for specifict purpose by the Yayasan .
Yayasan Dharma Ibu (services to mothers) helps the early childhood education programme. The Agriculture Service helps students to grow chilies properly. The Women’s International Club provided some tools for carpentry. Yogya Department Store donated 10 sewing machines. Other ministries, such as health, industry and public works cooperate with the PKBM.
All community education offices (provincial, district, and sub-district) help in the provision of learning materials. Interested individuals also lend a helping hand to the PKBM so that it can effectively serve the community.
With the implementation of these learning programmes, soon the PKBM Buana Mekar was known to all the village people in Baleendah Sub-district and outside. In addition, there have been groups of visitors who came to see what was going in the PKBM Buana Mekar, Baleendah Village. Almost all provincial and district community education officers in Indonesia have observed the activities.
There has also been a World Bank team, representatives from UNESCO Jakarta, members of Parliament from some provinces, community supervisors, university students and even some educators from India. Although these visits disturbed the learning activities, on the other hand, because of the visits, the managers, organizers, tutors and instructors at the PKBM were motivated to do their utmost to help the have-nots in education.
The present organization of the PKBM Buana Mekar is as follows:
Patron: Mr. H. Barnas Resman, Drs., M.A., Head of the Inspection
Office Education, Bandung District
Adviser: Mr. Tamba, Drs., M.M., Chairman of Buana Mekar Foundation
General supervisors:
(a) Mr. H. Aruman K., Head of Section, Community Education;
(b) Mr. R.E. Sunarya, B.A, Community education supervisor of Baleendah Sub-District
Field supervisors:
(a) Mr. Yedi Kusmayadi, S.Pd., sub-district field supervisor;
(b) Ms. Enung N., sub-district field supervisor
Chairman of PKBM: Mr. H. Hendi Bimantoro
Secretariat: Ms. Gugun and Mr. E. Tatang Sudrajat
Curriculum section: Mr. A. Giharta
Learners’ co-ordinator: Ms. Henni Suharti
Those visitors from other provinces have now replicated the PKBM model. We now have PKBM in almost all the provinces of Indonesia. In West Java alone, there are 47 of them. How is this expansion possible in such a very short time? This may be explained as follows: In Indonesia, there is a cultural value called latah (an extreme form of copying , almost done unconsciously or automatically). If there is an activity believed to be good and effective, people unconsciously tend to copy it. There are of course positive and negative sides to this cultural attitude, but it is a reality in Indonesia that we have to live with. This puts a heavier burden on the shoulders of Indonesian educators.
Why is this model (PKBM) so attractive? First of all, PKBM is a kind of matchmaker between the haves and the have-nots in education. Second , the educational programmes are designed according to the needs expressed by the learners, and fitted also to the market demand; thus, it is not top-down but bottom-up.
Third , both the organizers/managers and the learners cooperate in designing relevant programmes of learning. Fourth , cooperation among all stakeholders is a requirement that guarantees the success of a PKBM.
Those requirements of a successful PKBM are really not so difficult to understand and to copy. The basis for them is to be found among the common features of developing areas not only throughout Indonesia, but also in the whole world, especially in the poverty pockets of our planet.
What the organizers/managers have done in reality is to help fellow citizens to improve the quality of their lives through out-of-school education programmes. The learners could not better themselves through formal education because they are financially unable to do so.
The accomplishments by the organizers and managers of PKBM Buana Mekar in the beginning (pioneering phase) have had a positive impact. With the active participation of many members of the community and with their encouragement, new courses are being offered. These include using computers, dressmaking, carpentry and apprenticeship programmes (for carpentry and welding) for Packet B learners.
These apprenticeship programmes are used also by the Packet B learning groups outside the PKBM Buana Mekar. As a matter of fact, Packet B is not only an equivalency of lower secondary school, but includes skill-formation as part and parcel of its content. In addition, the Packet B programme is considered superior to other programmes in this PKBM. The Packet B graduates do well in competition with the graduates of formal lower secondary education in pursuing study at the secondary education level.
Packet B is superior or excellent, not only because it has a concrete learning programme with relevant skills (an added value). But it is also valuable because many primary school graduates cannot afford to continue learning through the formal education channel. In addition, the surrounding industries are recruiting workers who are minimal lower secondary school graduates, or its equivalency, which is Packet B.
The rate of progress is not without some constraints, especially financial. In solving this problem, the organizers and managers are developing a small enterprise in the PKBM. They search for some people who are willing to pay for the services provided by the learners in the field of carpentry and welding. They are now getting some profits by selling chairs, tables and beds made of wood or iron, wall decorations, and other household necessities.
With the profits gained, the maintenance of the equipment is guaranteed, but the learners also get some money as a motivating factor. On the other hand, some learners also give financial contributions according to their ability to pay. This is called a voluntary fee. The community education office provides some equipment for skills training, some learning materials in the form of modules, uniforms for learners of Packet B, and a small honorarium for Packet B tutors.
As already mentioned, the Packet B graduates are in possession of certain relevant skills that may be used in the surrounding industries. From the socio-economic point of view, one can observe that many Packet B graduates open their own small businesses related to sewing, carpentry or catering. Last year’s students of Packet B are now able to earn Rp. 70,000 (about US$8) weekly, earning while learning.
In 1999, PKBM Buana Mekar in the competition with other PKBMs in Bandung district, got first prize and its Packet B programme also received first prize in West Java province. In order to boost learning-teaching processes, books are provided and continuously improved, quantitatively as well as qualitatively, through a variety of donor organizations. At present, PKBM Buana Mekar is in possession of Taman Bacaan Masyarakat (TMB – Community
Reading Centre) and the people in the locality are donating books for the TBM to be used also by all community members.
As an example, the following table explains the syllabus and teaching programme of Packet B, equivalent to lower secondary education plus skills-formation as explained as by Mr. Dedi Junaedi, the manager, and Mr. A Tamba, Drs., M.M., the Chairman of the Yayasan Buana Mekar:
As mentioned elsewhere, a PKBM will become the right and effective vehicle for the democratization of Indonesia. A PKBM is very close to the people being served. It is owned and operated by the people for the people. In the past, through a policy of governance that was authoritarian and power oriented, the people, consciously or unconsciously, were becoming and behaving like beggars . They were merely waiting to receive some funds from the government in order to be able to do something, including out-of-school education programmes.
Now, in this reformation era, the time is right to give back to the people the self-respect they deserve, and to motivate them to be responsible for the programmes that they believe they are
really in need of. Now the democratization process has just started, and education for democracy is very urgently needed by the people.
There is hope that the PKBM can take part in this democratization process more effectively, because the people are being educated by the PKBM. As a result, they will become responsible and well-informed citizens. They receive the functional knowledge and information that they need to improve their standard of living and quality of life. They are provided with relevant skills that they need for earning a living. They are guided in order to face future challenges and take full advantage of new opportunities.
Source:
PENUHI KEINGINAN MEREKA
Arip Nurahman
Departemen Pendidikan Fisika, FPMIPA, Indonesia University of Education
&
Follower Open Course Ware at MIT-Harvard University, U.S.A.
(Guru dan Dosen Profesional)
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