Jumat, 28 Februari 2014

EDUCATION ISSUE: SCHOOL FACILITIES




            A school facility is becoming one of the issues in our education started from the elementary level until the university level. It has become our own responsibility as Indonesian citizen to overcome this problem in order to get the good result in our education. Based on Bafadal (2003: 2), Education facilities are all equipment set, material, furniture used directly in the process of education at school. Wahyuningrum (2004: 5) states that school facilities are all facilities needed in learning process including the moveable and unmovable things in order to get the education target. Also According to Moenir (1992: 119), facilities are all kind of equipments or work facilities that can assist the job process and are concerned with work organization.
            Based on the above definitions, facilities offer some benefits. They can make the work implementation proficiently in order to save time, increase the things and service productivity, get qualified and guaranteed result, ease the user, accurate in work stability, give comfortable feeling for the users, and give satisfactory feeling for the user.     
                Facilities are very important for the achievement of students. That is why there is the relation of facilities to student’s achievement. Number of studies has shown that many school systems, particularly those in urban and high-poverty areas, are plagued by decaying buildings that threaten the health, safety, and learning opportunities of students. Good facilities appear to be an important precondition for student learning, provided that other conditions are present that support a strong academic program in the school. A growing body of research has linked student achievement and behavior to the physical building conditions and overcrowding.
Physical Building Conditions
Decaying environmental conditions such as peeling paint, crumbling plaster, nonfunctioning toilets, poor lighting, inadequate ventilation, and inoperative heating and cooling systems can affect the learning as well as the health and the morale of staff and students.
Impact on student achievement
  • A study of the District of Columbia school system found, after controlling for other variables such as a student's socioeconomic status, that students' standardized achievement scores were lower in schools with poor building conditions. Students in school buildings in poor condition had achievement that was 6% below schools in fair condition and 11% below schools in excellent condition. (Edwards, 1991)
  • Cash (1993) examined the relationship between building condition and student achievement in small, rural Virginia high schools. Student scores on achievement tests, adjusted for socioeconomic status, was found to be up to 5 percentile points lower in buildings with lower quality ratings. Achievement also appeared to be more directly related to cosmetic factors than to structural ones. Poorer achievement was associated with specific building condition factors such as substandard science facilities, air conditioning, locker conditions, classroom furniture, more graffiti, and noisy external environments.
  • Similarly, Hines' (1996) study of large, urban high schools in Virginia also found a relationship between building condition and student achievement. Indeed, Hines found that student achievement was as much as 11 percentile points lower in substandard buildings as compared to above-standard buildings.
  • A study of North Dakota high schools, a state selected in part because of its relatively homogeneous, rural population, also found a positive relationship between school condition (as measured by principals' survey responses) and both student achievement and student behavior. (Earthman, 1995)
  • McGuffey (1982) concluded that heating and air conditioning systems appeared to be very important, along with special instructional facilities (i.e., science laboratories or equipment) and color and interior painting, in contributing to student achievement. Proper building maintenance was also found to be related to better attitudes and fewer disciplinary problems in one cited study.
  • Research indicates that the quality of air inside public school facilities may significantly affect students' ability to concentrate. The evidence suggests that youth, especially those under ten years of age, are more vulnerable than adults to the types of contaminants (asbestos, radon, and formaldehyde) found in some school facilities (Andrews and Neuroth, 1988).
Impact on teaching
  • Lowe (1988) interviewed State Teachers of the Year to determine which aspects of the physical environment affected their teaching the most, and these teachers pointed to the availability and quality of classroom equipment and furnishings, as well as ambient features such as climate control and acoustics as the most important environmental factors. In particular, the teachers emphasized that the ability to control classroom temperature is crucial to the effective performance of both students and teachers.
  • A study of working conditions in urban schools concluded that "physical conditions have direct positive and negative effects on teacher morale, sense of personal safety, feelings of effectiveness in the classroom, and on the general learning environment." Building renovations in one district led teachers to feel "a renewed sense of hope, of commitment, a belief that the district cared about what went on that building." In dilapidated buildings in another district, the atmosphere was punctuated more by despair and frustration, with teachers reporting that leaking roofs, burned out lights, and broken toilets were the typical backdrop for teaching and learning." (Corcoran et al., 1988)
  • Corcoran et al. (1988) also found that "where the problems with working conditions are serious enough to impinge on the work of teachers, they result in higher absenteeism, reduced levels of effort, lower effectiveness in the classroom, low morale, and reduced job satisfaction. Where working conditions are good, they result in enthusiasm, high morale, cooperation, and acceptance of responsibility."
A Carnegie Foundation (1988) report on urban schools concluded that "the tacit message of the physical indignities in many urban schools is not lost on students. It bespeaks neglect, and students' conduct seems simply an extension of the physical environment that surrounds them." Similarly, Poplin and Weeres (1992) reported that, based on an intensive study of teachers, administrators, and students in four schools, "the depressed physical environment of many schools... is believed to reflect society's lack of priority for these children and their education."
Overcrowding
Overcrowded schools are a serious problem in many school systems, particularly in the inner cities, where space for new construction is at a premium and funding for such construction is limited. As a result, students find themselves trying to learn while jammed into spaces never intended as classrooms, such as libraries, gymnasiums, laboratories, lunchrooms, and even closets. Although research on the relationship between overcrowding and student learning has been limited, there is some evidence, particularly in high-poverty schools, that overcrowding can have an adverse impact on learning.
  • A study of overcrowded schools in New York City found that students in such schools scored significantly lower on both mathematics and reading exams than did similar students in underutilized schools. In addition, when asked, students and teachers in overcrowded schools agreed that overcrowding negatively affected both classroom activities and instructional techniques. (Rivera-Batiz and Marti, 1995)
  • Corcoran et al. (1988) found that overcrowding and heavy teacher workloads created stressful working conditions for teachers and led to higher teacher absenteeism.
Crowded classroom conditions not only make it difficult for students to concentrate on their lessons, but inevitably limit the amount of time teachers can spend on innovative teaching methods such as cooperative learning and group work or, indeed on teaching anything beyond the barest minimum of required material. In addition, because teachers must constantly struggle simply to maintain order in an overcrowded classroom, the likelihood increases that they will suffer from burnout earlier than might otherwise are the case.
Source: (http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OESE/archives/inits/construction/impact2.html)  
FACILITIES PROBLEMS
·         School Building       
The broken school roof, 7 wounded people because of the broken roof school, three students got injured on their heads because the broken school, the broken elementary school (Indramayu), students studied on the street, 67 % of elementary schools in Sukabumi in bad condition, 2.278 elementary school in very bad condition, students studied under the trees, fifty thousands constructions are delayed, The rural vocational school are limited, The bad facilities in many schools, lack of 250 junior high school buildings in West Kalimantan, the bad condition of under bridge school, School needs librarians, no electricity  in some areas, 4.401 school in Riau are uncertified, 60  bad school buildings in Samarinda and many more.
 (http://Jurnal Pendidikan/614. Html)
·         Library
Actually, library is not just a place to put some books. But it is one way to improve the students’ achievement. It is “the heart of school”. Many schools do not have qualified librarians. Based on some research, there are  some surprising factors about the library. They are as follows; no students in library, only open in school hour (more a less 15 minutes), no cooperation with teachers to guide students to get information from library, teachers can not ask students to find books from library because library does not open after school, the librarian are often not in the library, the librarians does not promote their library actively and creatively. (jurnal.pendidikan.net/jurnal1.html)
·         Learning facilities
            There are some problems in learning facilities at school. First, In the school, facilities are available but they are not accessible to use.  Many facilities are kept in the head or vice master’s room. It makes the learning facilities can not be used regularly and efficiently. It needs time and procedures to use them. At least, the teachers ask permissions first from the head or vice master at school.  Second, there are no learning facilities because of the limited fund from the school to buy the facilities. For example, tape recorder, laptop, in focus and etc. Third, the school has the limited maintenance staff to make the facilities in good conditions. It will waste money if the facilities are not maintained well.
SOLUTIONS
            Government has the rules about facilities. If one school can not fulfill the facilities standard in their school, it will influence the score of their school accreditation. In Indonesia government rules number 19 year 2005 about the eight educational national standards. One of them in facilities standard in education institution rule number 24 year 2007. The standard facilities of one school must have these following items.
1.      Classroom is a room for theory and practical that does not need the specific equipment
2.      Laboratory room is a room to learn the practical lesson that needs the specific equipment
3.      The headmaster room is a room for the headmaster to manage the school   
4.      The teacher room is  a room for the teacher to work outside the classroom, take a rest and welcome the quests
5.      Administration room is a room to manage the school administration
6.      Library is a room for getting knowledge and information
7.      Students’ health room is a room for the  early sick students
8.      Praying room is a room for students to pray
9.      Students’ school association room is a room for the students to manage their organization
10.  Toilet is a place for the students to wash their hands
11.  ‘Gudang” is a room  to keep the equipments of outside class and school file
12.  Circulation room is a room to connect every parts  of building at school
13.  Sport place is a place to have sport supported by the sport facilities
14.  Studying group is  a group of students in one class to study.

            According to Hamied (2014) in the 3rd  Southern Region of Sumatera Teflin national Seminar dated at 9th  February 2014, On  the basis of the complexity associated with the process of learning a second language, teaching English to young learners requires fulfillment of fundamental bases which include (1) clarity of the target to achieve, (2) availability of qualified teachers and supporting facilities, (3) societal and environmental supports, such as exposure via different media to the target language consistent with specified goals as outlined above.
            Some aspects of facilities should be active in implementation the qualified facilities. First, 25 % of education fund from government should be run well in order to get good result education. Next, the role of School Committee to assist school in providing good facilities. We can commence with used books, magazines, newspapers, comics, etc. donated from our local community. There is no publication that is not useful to someone in some way. The main thing is that we start!
 Then, the school provides good facilities management and maintained staff. Also, there are some active librarians at school to  implement the idea to open library one or two hours after school hours end. And it should be “online library” because not all the students have access to browse the information at home. Last, we promote the lifelong learning at school and in their family.
REFERENCES
http://educationindonesia.net/perpustakaan.html
jurnal.pendidikan.net/jurnal1.html
http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OESE/archives/inits/construction/impact2.html
Impact of inadequate school facilities  on student’s learning





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