POLICY BRIEF - OCTOBER 2019

MULTI-GRADE TEACHING
 WHY SHOULD MULTI-GRADE TEACHING MATTER IN INDONESIA?
According to the World Bank, over 30 per cent of the world’s children are taught in multi-grade classes1. In many
small primary schools and madrasah in Indonesia, there is no option other than to group children in multi-grade
classes, for example, combining grades three and four in one group. There are simply not enough funds or
enough teachers to provide one certified teacher for each grade group in all schools in Indonesia.
Mapping the supply of teachers in seven provinces and over 50 districts and cities in the 2013–2016 period
revealed: (a) a shortage of permanent civil servant (PNS) teachers in nearly 50 per cent of primary schools and
madrasah as well as in junior-secondary schools; this is partly due to teachers who were appointed during the
major school construction Inpres program in the 1970s now reaching retirement; (b) the average number of
pupils in government schools is small with fewer than 60 students per school in some districts (such as Wajo in
South Sulawesi); and (c) many isolated primary schools and madrasah cannot be merged or ‘regrouped’ due to
geographical barriers2.
The 2015 – 2019 National Development Plan (RPJMN) and the Ministry of Education and Culture’s (MoEC) five-
year strategic plan for the same period both refer to multi-grade (and multi-subject teaching for junior secondary)
as a means of improving teacher deployment. This is a step in the right direction, but more can be done. One
important development which resulted in part from the work of previous development assistance projects, is
a change in the regulations, which previously restricted certified multi-grade teachers from receiving monthly
professional allowances from the national government. While one of the requirements for the payment was that
a teacher taught a minimum of 20 students in one grade and one class (PP 74 of 2009), this was amended in PP
No. 19 of 2017, making it possible for multi-grade teachers to receive the benefit.
In many developed countries and progressive public and private systems of education, multi-grade approaches are
seen as the approach of first choice with clear pedagogic advantages over traditional mono-grade classrooms3. In
every classroom there are children of various ‘learning ages’; advanced education systems do not expect every
child to learn the same thing at the same time as this is not effective. In such systems multi-grade teaching is
seen as an effective way of catering for individual needs4. However, in Indonesia multi-grade teaching is generally
seen as ‘second class’ and considered inferior to traditional single-grade teaching. Traditional rigid curricula and
whole-class, text-based teaching approaches make multi-grade teaching a challenge5.

Two options under consideration are multi-grade

WHAT DO WE KNOW?
classes in primary schools and multi-subject teachers
Based on recent analysis conducted by the Technical in junior-secondary schools.
Assistance for Education Systems Strengthening
In Probolinggo, where INOVASI has implemented
(TASS) program, using data from MoEC’s basic
a multi-grade pilot with eight schools, the need for
education database (DAPODIK), around 2.3 million
multi-grade in many areas of the district is high. In
teachers are currently employed in Indonesian
INOVASI partner schools, the number of students
state schools. Over half of these (65%, around 1.5
per school ranges from 37 to 60, with 5 to 7 teachers
million) are civil servants, paid from general fund
per school. The number of students in each class
transfers from central to district governments. The
is low and inconsistent, as seen in the following 3
remaining 800,000 are contract teachers, funded by
partner primary schools6:
school operation grants and district budgets. This
Total number of students per grade
suggests that Indonesia needs almost one million
School Name
additional civil servant teachers to ensure all state 1 st
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
grade grade grade grade grade grade
schools are properly staffed. In other words, it needs
SDN Ngadisari I 3 10 4 8 13 13
to dramatically increase the number of teachers,
and education spending. This is clearly not possible. SDN Sukapura IV 4 11 12 5 6 5
Efficiencies must be found in teacher deployment.
SDN Wonokerto II 11 13 17 6 4 7
1
World Bank 2010, 2014
2
Heyward et al. 2017
3
Angela W. Little. Education for All and Multigrade Teaching. Challenges and Opportunities. Spinger: 20016.
4
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781402045905
5
https://batukarinfo.com/system/files/Multigrade%20Teaching%20Policy%20Brief_English_final.pdf
6
INOVASI Multi-grade study, 2019

2
POLICY BRIEF - OCTOBER 2019
Emerging evidence in Probolinggo expands to multi-grade teaching is especially needed in the
school support and improved teaching practice. By frontier, remote and undeveloped areas (terdepan,
using multi-grade approaches, and improved lesson terluar dan tertinggal, known as the 3T areas).
planning and learning media, class size increases, Thus the problem is not national or regional teacher
and teacher motivation increases in kind7. Other shortages but that teachers are not evenly distributed
observed indications of change from INOVASI’s between provinces, between districts/cities within the
multi-grade study in East Java included: provinces and between schools within the districts.
• Student peer tutoring, using a ‘buddy’ system
Teacher capacity and knowledge
• Increased student enthusiasm and interaction in
Teachers’ capacity to teach multi-grade classes is
the larger class size
limited, particularly in relation to: differentiating the
• A more engaging learning environment curriculum for learners of different ability; using a
range of learning media; and managing learning
• Teachers are better able to deliver learning
activities and processes in a diverse classroom. The
material to students with different competency
idea of child-centred learning is not well understood.
demands
Teaching tends to be traditional, text-book driven, and
• Better use of learning aids, and visible learning teacher-centred.
outcomes and results in the classroom. As a
Little support is provided from central or district
result of this pilot, the district has passed a new
government to introduce multi-grade teaching in
regulation to support multi-grade teaching and
primary schools (or multi-subject teaching in junior-
learning and is funding the multigrade training for
secondary schools). Specific issues include: (a) no
a further 90 small schools.
accepted methodology or training for supervisors,
principals and teachers; (b) no budget allocated to
WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES? multi-grade or multi-subject programs; (c) no data
collected on multi-grade classes; (d) no technical
Teacher deployment and efficiency
guidelines or instructions on multi-grade teaching
Teachers are distributed unevenly between districts and classroom management; and (e) no technical
and cities and between schools within districts/cities. support for multi-grade programs (curricula or
Typically, urban schools are oversupplied while special modules that teachers can easily adapt and
remote, rural schools are undersupplied8. As a result, implement in multi-grade classes).

7
INOVASI Multi-grade study, 2019
8
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/591981468259478517/pdf/587580BRI0poli10BOX353813B01PUBLIC1.pdf

3
MULTI-GRADE TEACHING
 POLICY IMPLICATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Policy recommendations and priorities for strengthening multi-grade teaching and learning at the national level include:

1. Including multi-grade learning in the professional education for pre-service teacher preparation. This should
be mandatory through the design and implementation of multi-grade teaching courses in teacher institutes and
primary teacher training curricula to prepare teachers for a multi-grade situation. Furthermore, there should be
continuing professional development of multi-grade teaching for in-service teachers, promoting it as beneficial
for delivering quality in the classroom – not just as an efficiency measure.

2. Improving teachers’ competencies, especially in multi-grade teaching, through cluster-based training (teacher
NATIONAL

and subject teacher working groups) in collaboration with agencies such as the Education Quality Assurance
Institution and teacher training institutes; the focus needs to be on differentiated learning so teachers can teach
subjects at different levels.

3. The national government could provide additional Special Routine Costs (BRK) and additional BOS assistance
funding, as well as special incentives for multi-grade teachers, to compensate for the additional work they face
in preparing for and teaching more than two grades at once.

4. The Ministry of Education and Culture could work with the Ministry of Finance to explore financial incentives for
districts that make efficiencies in deploying teachers by implementing multi-grade and mutli-subject teaching,
regrouping schools and taking similar measures to reduce the need for teachers. Such financial incentives could
include districts receiving a share of the cost savings back to use in quality improvement programs.

5. Addressing the industrial aspects of implementing multi-grade teaching in primary schools, as well as multi-
subject teaching in junior secondary schools, will entail aligning national and minimum service standards for
teacher provision, which specify one teacher per grade. This will require consultation with national ministries and
teacher unions, including the United Teachers of the Republic of Indonesia (PGRI).

Policy recommendations and priorities for strengthening multi-grade teaching and learning at the district level include:

1. The heads of district education offices could issue regulations or decrees to strengthen school cluster working
groups for teachers, principals and school supervisors with regard to multi-grade activities. These can include
creating special-purpose teachers’ working groups for multi-grade teachers and appointing special supervisors
(pengawas) especially for multi-grade schools.
DISTRICT

2. Mainstreaming multi-grade teaching is best supported through decree issued by a district or city head so that
it can be recognised as a ‘special service’ (layanan khusus). In addition, it needs to be recognised in the basic
education data collection (DAPODIK) process in terms of recording teachers’ working load in teaching multi-
grade and multi-subject classes.

3. Districts and cities could strengthen their teacher distribution policies and implement them with incentive systems
to encourage and motivate teachers to teach in remote areas that usually face teacher shortages.

4. In remote areas where school regrouping is not possible, single-teacher satellite schools for early grades can be
run as part of a multi-site school. In some areas these are known as distance classes. Regulations to legitimise
and govern such practices would help to ensure they maintain a high standard.

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The Governments of Australia and Indonesia are partnering through the Innovation for Indonesia’s Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav 9,
School Children (INOVASI) program. INOVASI seeks to understand how to improve student Jakarta Pusat, 10270
Indonesia
learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy in diverse schools and districts across Indonesia. The
Tel : (+6221) 720 6616
first phase of the Program (AUD49 million) began in January 2016 and will continue until June 2020. Fax : (+6221) 720 6616
Working with Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture, INOVASI has formed partnerships with
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17 districts in: West Nusa Tenggara; Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara; North Kalimantan; and
Inovasi Untuk Anak Sekolah Indonesia
East Java.
INOVASI Pendidikan
www.inovasi.or.id

INOVASI is an Australia–Indonesia Government Partnership – Managed by Palladium