Developing a Model of Quality Procedures-Based Cost Management in Educational Institutions: A Case Study in Internationally-Designated Junior High Schools (IDJHSs),

Magelang Central Java

By Sri Haryati Abstract It is commonly practiced that, at the end of a year, most of educational institutions make budget plans and actions for the next year in which funds are well allocated for agreed-upon activities in support of the vision and missions. However, rarely do they implement the designed plans accordingly. Things may change along the year ahead. New issues come up in place of the planned ones. This is not bad at all but it may somehow show inconsistency in decision making practices. In the light of this, an institution is supposed to carry out SWOT analysis in terms of external and internal environments in order to come up with fixed plans in accordance with fund consumption, quality standards, and quality target. A number of factors involving the top lines of institutional management, local governments, school committee, and educational boards are to cooperate in this matter, including among other things, (1) planning and organizing budget, (2) budget implementation, and (3) budget control and evaluation, of which each stage must have clearly defined quality procedures. On top of that, monitoring is to be undertaken as of budget planning, fund proposal and release, and reports of each activity. Sudah menjadi suatu tradisi bahwa pada akhir tahun ajaran, kebanyakan institusi pendidikan membuat rancangan biaya dan tindakan untuk tahun mendatang yang mana dana sudah dialokasikan untuk kegiatan yang sudah disepakati bersama untuk kendukung visi dan misi. Namun dalam pelaksanaanya, jarang sekali rencana yang sudah disepakati itu dapat dilaksanakan sebagaimana mestinya. Perubahan bisa saja muncul pada tahun berjalan. Permasalahan atau agenda baru sering muncul dan menggantikan agenda lama yang sudah disepakati. Keadaan seperti ini tidak buruk sama sekali namun sedikitnya menunjukkan adanya ketidak konsistenan praktik pembuatan keputusan. Dalam hal ini, isntitusi dituntut agar melakukan analisis KEKEPAN dari sudut lingkungan eksternal maupun internal agar dapat dirumuskan rencana tetap sesuai dengan pemakaian dana, standar mutu dan sasaran mutu. Sejumlah faktor yang melibatkan managemen papan atas, pemerintah setempat, komite sekolah, dan dewan pendidikan menuntut adanya kerja sama, yang meliputi antara lain (1) perencanaan dan pengorganisasian anggaran, (2) pelaksanaan anggaran dan (3) control dan evaluasi anggaran, yang mana masing-masing tingkat budgeting diharuskan memiliki prosedur mutu. Yang paling penting adalah kegiatan monitoring yang harus sudah dimulai sejak perencanaan, permohonan dan pencairan dana, serta laporan masing2 kegiatan. Key Words: quality procedure, cost management

Introduction Despite the fact that decentralization of cost management can potentially contribute to the governments efficiency in budgeting (Oates 1993,239), its implementation in the field has a lot of problems, three of which include (a) limited amount of Local Government Budget, (b) varying degrees of commitments among cost management systems, and (c) very limited skills of regional cost educational management (Supriyadi 2006, 11). Furthermore, with respect to budgeting, the local government of Magelang, Central Java has requested that all schools propose validated school budgets prior to the beginning of an academic year. However, in practice, only few schools (in 2011, only 17%) managed to comply with this government regulation due to four main problems, namely (a) no manual for quality procedures-based school cost management, (b) no work procedures for cost plan, and (c) limited skills for cost management apart from the hectic time, working in an internationally-designated school (IDS), and (d) no manual for the calculation of unit cost per school per student. This has created an impression that the cost of IDJHS is very high. With respect to educational budgeting in both theory and practice at the micro or macro levels, there are three categories of costs (Supriyadi 2006,4). First is what is referred to as direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs include all costs directly supporting the educational operation. Indirect costs, on the other hand, refer to all costs that indirectly support operation, but enable to help run the school, such as students cost of living, transportation expenses, pocket money, cost of health care, and opportunity cost. Theoretically, educational management is a systemic, systematic and cooperative process undertaken to achieve and realize the national goal of education (Arikunto 2008,3). Therefore, full authority in school-based management is granted to principals and teachers in planning, organizing, supervising and reporting all educational endeavors by making the best use of human resources and facilities in support of the goal of education (Mulyasa 2004, 20). Research indicates that school management is one of the determinant factors influencing the quality of education (R& D of Education and Culture 1991). Furthermore, Arikunto (2008) argued that the roles of a leader are to motivate, direct and coordinate the organizational practices from planning to evaluating. More importantly, it was argued (Jone 1985) that cost management includes (a) financial planning or budgeting, (b) implementation involving accounting, and (c) evaluation with respect to auditing. Blocker (2000) stressed the importance of strategic management, planning and decision making, operational and management control, income statement reporting. With respect to quality management system (Gaspersz 2003), it has something to do with the implementation of quality management consisting of a series of documented procedures of standard practices within Suppliers, Input, Processes, Output, Customers, Objective and Measurement (SIPOCOM). All elements are supposed to be systematically worked out in a management model characterized as being simple, applicable, important, controllable, adaptable and communicable (Tondora and Hoge 2005). Most importantly, all cost calculations are based on School Unit Operational Costs, namely total operational costs divided by the total number of students.

This study, therefore attempted to develop a model of quality-procedures-based cost management in educational institutions (IDHJSs in Magelang), focusing on eight research questions: (a) What strategies are used in budget planning? (b) How are various educational activities are financed? (c) How are educational expenses evaluated? (d) Who are involved in budget planning? (e) What factors cause problems in budgeting? (f) How is a model of quality procedures in cost management developed? (g) How are School Unit Operation Costs (SUOC) calculated? And, (h) What is the degree of success in calculating SUOC-based costs? Purpose and Significance of the Study This study is aimed at developing a model of quality procedures-based cost management in educational institutions with a particular emphasis on internationally-designated junior high schools (IDJHSs). Despite the fact that the current study is case-based, the findings may be generalized in similar educational contexts.

Methods The study was designed to employ a research and development approach on the basis of Borg and Galls research design (1983) simplified into three stages, namely (a) preliminary study, (b) developing a model, (c) final model. Two State Junior High Schools (SMP 1 and SMP 2), both of them are internationally designated were taken as the research sites. Both schools are located in Magelang, Central Java for ease of access since the researcher is currently employed in Tidar University, Magelang, Central Java Informants were purposefully sampled under particular considerations, namely engineered in accordance with the current needs for comprehensiveness and expertise in the subject matter under study Some techniques of data collection were employed. These included in-depth interviews, observation, documentation, tests, and questionnaires. The main research instrument was the researcher herself while the support instrument was the interview kits administered to the Principals / Vice Principals, the School Treasurers, and the Coordinators of Development of the two schools, State Junior High Schools (SMPN 1 and SMPN 2). The researcher, as previously mentioned, also employed tests and questionnaire to be administered to budget managers, colleagues, students parents, and educational experts and practitioners. The data was analyzed through in-depth examination of all data available from various resources, such as interviews, observation, documentation, and photos. On-going or filed-based analysis was undertaken, adopting three steps, namely data reduction, data presentation, and data verification (Sugiyono 2009,337). The data was verified on the basis of four criteria, as used in qualitative research, namely degrees of confidence, transferability, dependability, and factuality. These criteria were employed to justify the findings of the study, which was supposed to be field-based. Borg and Gall (1983)s operational steps, namely preliminary studies, model development and final hypothetic model and model dissemination were used.

Findings With respect to educational budgeting, there are two types of budgeting, a four-year budget, and annual budget which is made in the first year of the four year period. Budgeting starts with needs analysis prior to determining the goal and formulating the work plan (Pearce 2001, 167) as part of the strategies. SWOT analysis is undertaken as a strategy for goal achievement. This study revealed that school budgeting involved the principal, vice principal, the coordinator of development, teachers, staff, school committee, students parents, and education office in compliance with the governments regulation on budgeting, as also strengthened by Firdaus findings on this matter (2005). At least, there were eight indicators of key performance that should be financed by the central government and through provincial governments block grant as the schools were designated for international standards which among others covered (a) developing school leavers competence standards, (b) developing process standards, (c) developing human resources teaching and educating competence, (d) developing cooperation. In other words, the central governments funds and the provincial governments block grant were comprehensively used up in maintenance and support of internationalization of Junior High Schoolsas Internationally-Designated Junior High School (IDJHS) in terms of competency-based curriculum,

Conclusion and Recommendations This article concludes that school budgeting has so far involved in-school stakeholders based on priority scales and performance indicators. Secondly, school budget plan prior to being validated as school budget has had to be agreed upon by the school community, school committee, education office, and students parents. Thirdly, monitoring and evaluation have been undertaken as of (a) planning, (b) processing fund proposal and release, (c) reporting each unit of activity. Fourthly, those involved in budgeting have been the principal, the vice principal, the school treasurer, and the development coordinator/ teacher. Fifthly, the problems in cost management have so far dealt with developmental overloads in IDJHS, teachers workloads, resulting in some delay of budget planning. The proposed model of cost management has been built upon several quality procedures for issues developed in three stages. Stage 1 includes school development team formatting, coordinating and socializing, SWOT analyzing , school activity planning, school budget planning, Stage 2 involves IDS block grant proposing, operational support fund proposing, salary releasing, community fund raising, and accounting. Involved in Stage 3 is budget evaluating, such as auditing, financial reporting, management improving. Each budget management is formulated under specific purposes, scopes, achievement criteria, flowcharts, and quality procedures.

It is therefore recommended that SWOT analysis be undertaken with respect to internal and external environments, implementation of budget plan be based on quality procedures with a view to better outcomes, sustainability be maintained, budgeting be carefully calculated by each education unit, verification team be formed by education office, this study be followed up by whomever it may concern.

References