Improvement of SMK

The Ministry of National Education has set up Three Main Goals for 2004-2009:
(1) To spread and widen the access for education;
(2) To improve Quality, Relevance and Competitiveness and
(3) To strengthen Management, Accountability and Public Image.

Along with the above goals, Directorate for Vocational School which is under the Directorate General for Manajement of Primary and Secondary Education has set up several main targets in bringing up vocational schools capable of dealing with the competitive global era.

Spreading and widening the access for education;
a. Improving vocational school’s capacity by establishing new schools, setting up smaller vocational school within the secondary school or other institution, setting up distance learning model of vocational school in Pondok Pesantren (the school for Koranic studies), Senior High School and within an industry, as well as empowering existing vocational schools, both state-owned and private.
b. Offering special vocational school programs in under-developed areas or at the nation’s borders.
c. Setting up a scholarship scheme for the rather unfortunate students and improving the infrastructure.

Improving Quality, Relevance and Competitiveness
a. Providing support facilities: library, laboratory or workshop.
b. Enhancing partnership with business or industry, and, in cooperation with industry, developing a model vocational school.
c. Developing Information Technology program that includes ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Center as well as computer labs and internet access.
d. Setting up vocational schools with local and international standard, partnering with overseas education institutions for internship program.
e. Improving reference books, textbooks and reading materials.
f. Improving the average score in National Examination, including the improvement of beasic skills, Increasing the frequency of examination, and arranging online examination.
g. Developing a competency-based curriculum which includes imposing Competency Certification, both at local and international standard.


Strengthening Management, Accountability and Public Image.
a. Capacity-building programs at all level of organizations, starting with the Directorate for Vocational School, school management and all stakeholders of vocational school.
b. Socializing the policy of the Directorate for Vocational School towards society, business/industry and international bodies.
c. School mapping program accompanied by a need analysis of what the business/industry requires.
d. Improving Quality Management System, starting with monitoring and evaluation, implementing the e-government, analyzing vocational education development, ISO 9001:2000 requirement, and developing Central Vocational Schools at the national, provincial and regency levels.

Technical and Vocational Education Goal

Government Regulation No. 19/2005 on the standard of national education, elaborately defines the goals of technical and vocational education: “Secondary vocational education prioritizes preparing students for employment and developing professionalism”.

Referring to the Letter of Regulation of the Ministry of Education and Culture No. 04907 U/1990, the goals of vocational education can be described as follows:

1. Preparing student for higher education level or to expand their primary education.
2. Improving students ability, as the member of society, to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with their social ad cultural environment.
3. Improving student capability for self development in sciences, technology and art, also
4. Preparing students for employment and to develop professionalism.

Vocational School

The existence of vocational school in Indonesia dates back to the era before the country’s independence. Dedi Supriadi (2002) noted that “Sekolah Pertukangan” (a school for craftsman), established in Surabaya in 1853, could be the first vocational school in Indonesia. From the colonial era until today, vocational school in Indonesia has had a dynamic history.

During the early days of independence and up to the first Five-year Development Plan era, the problem lay mostly in providing infrastructure and facility. Later on it was the quality issues, and nowadays it’s about shifting from the “supply-driven” paradigm into a “demand-driven” approach, and the link and match system as well as the “Pendidikan Sistem Ganda” or commonly known as internship or apprenticeship program.

Referring to the Law No. 20 on National Education System in 2003, Technical and Vocational Education is defined as “an education to prepare students to be able to work in certain fields”. More specifically, the Government Regulation No. 19/2005 on National Education Standard, stated the target in secondary education: the technical and vocational education aims to develop students skill and capability for a certain job. Hence, technical and vocational eduication needs to have a close relationship with the business or industry.

The Benefits of Vocational Education

1. For student

• Improvement of personal quality
• Earning a better income
• Ready for further or higher education
• Ready to contribute to the society and the nation

2. For the business or industry

• Getting skilled, quality workers
• Reduce company’s expenditure
• Support the progress of businee itself

3. For Society

• Improve social welfare
• Enhance national pruductivity and improve national income
• Reduce unemployment rate

Vocational Education

Vocational Education is one of the sub systems in our National Education System. Generally, vocational education (Wardiman, 1998) has the following characteristics:

1. It is intended to prepare students for the job market.
2. It is based on a “demand-driven” approach (what the business or industry needs).
3. It is focused on mastering the knowledge, skill, attitudes and values needed in the work environment.
4. The true benchmark for students or graduates success is the performance in their job.
5. The key success of vocational education is a strong relationship with the business or industry.
6. It shall be responsive to anticipate the advancement of technology.
7. It shall focus on “learning-by-doing” and hands-on-experience” principles.
8. It requires up-to-date facilities for practice.
9. It requires higher investment and operational costs compared to that of a general secondary education.

The Keyword: Education

Countries with the potentials to move forward, leaving others to win the competition in this globalization era, have at least one thing in common: they focus on education, continuously improving the quality opf their education system, as well as the accessibility. Indonesia has realized the importance of education as the foundation to build competitive advantages; but it reality, from the state budget point of view, a pro-education budget has only begun in 2004 when the education sector was allocated 20% of the total budget.

Indonesia needs to seriously develop reliable, competitive human resources in this globalization era, to ensure a sustainable growth in development. We already know that the key is in quality education. The question now would be what type of education system to build.

Local Autonomy

Another issue we need to pay attention to is the implementation of local autonomy policy, which dictates the need for technical and managerial capability throughout the archipelago. Besides, privatization and the fact that government continues to minimize its role in the economic activities have already been a trend not only in Indonesia but also elsewhere in the world. It means that everyone has to be responsible for their own future. Simply put, we need to make it on our own, utilizing the most of our skills and ability.