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| The portrait of Prof. H. Akhsanul In'am, Ph.D., the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FTTE) lecturer at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM). (Photo: Istimewa) |
In 2017, the government began issuing a zoning system for student admission in a range of school levels. The policy also changes the requirements for public school candidates. Then, can the zoning system positively impact the education field?
In response, the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FTTE) lecturer at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang, Prof. H. Akhsanul In'am, Ph.D., shared his explanation. According to him, the school zoning system has good objectives: students can learn without sorting their intelligence, and zoning can equalize teacher quality regardless of the school’s popularity.
Furthermore, In’am asserts that several things need to notice in the zoning system. One of them is teachers must be able to give the same teaching quality to every school, so students will not feel any differences. In his view, every school will have varied student inputs, which makes teachers’ experiences not much different.
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“They must teach students with different intelligent levels. Teachers also must maximalize students’ potential and encourage them at the best grade. The thing that we must understand is that the zoning system has positive and negative impacts. I think every school basically has an educational quality level that is not much different—depending on the teaching and educational quality provided by teachers in every relevant school,” added he.
Despite that condition, the zoning system is inseparable from challenges, like the school distance for prospective students. When a student wishes to study at A school, even though it is nearer to their house, the student cannot do that. Instead, the student is enrolled at a school far from home because the school is considered to be in the same zoning.
Fortunately, this issue has found a solution by reducing the acceptance percentage from the zoning system. The least is 70% for elementary schools and 50% for junior and senior high schools. Hence, the chance for prospective students to compete in the regular path increases because the admission quota improves.
Cheating during the zoning system also needs special concerns. According to In'am, admission entrusting prospective students to someone with particular positions must be eradicated to create healthy competition among students in school enrollment. "All systems that have been made will be useless if they have any forms of cheating, which are detrimental to one party. Let's teach actual moral values to the nation's successor," the FTTE lecturer emphasized. (imh/fat/wil)
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