The Impact of New Student Admission Policy based on Zoning System

The Impact of New Student Admission Policy based on Zoning System

Siti Ma’rifatin, Ahmad Yusuf Sobri & Asep Sunandar
Educational Management, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia.

ABSTRACT

The zoning system was a new student admissions rule implemented in 2017.  This research aims to investigate the impact of the school zoning system on education policy in Indonesia.  This study used a literature review.  This study emphasized collecting various scientific reference sources, analyzing sources that have been found, evaluating scientific reference sources that have been analyzed then reusing the final results of appropriate reference sources with the studies based on.  The results of this study show that this policy has both positive and negative impacts.  However, its implementation has several challenges, including the local government’s lack of readiness to identify the zones and the comprehension of different populations, which results in its implementation being less than ideal.  Additionally, parents and students are still influenced when selecting a school by the idea of the preferred school paradox.  This must be done to provide equal access to high-quality education and sufficient human resources across the nation.

Keywords: zoning system, policy, new student admission, positive impacts, negative impacts.

INTRODUCTION

There are many issues in education.  The quality of education is one of them.  Every aspect of elite or poor society expects quality education.  Educational quality is a crucial success factor for the nation’s future generation (Ariswati, 2021).  The educational system should serve two essential purposes.  First, people must be knowledgeable enough to engage in social, economic, and political life.  Second, ensuring that everyone has access to education to level the playing field regarding educational quality.  According to this idea, it is evident that the government is responsible for giving the community the broadest access to consistently high-quality education.  A zoning system policy for the admission of new students to schools is one way the government’s involvement is enacted (Ariani, 2021).

The term “zoning” began to be used in 2017 in the arrangement of the New Student Admission System (PPDB), which refers to the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture Number 14 of 2018 concerning the Acceptance of New Students in Kindergartens, Elementary Schools, Junior High Schools, Schools Senior High School, Vocational High School, or other equivalent forms (Kemendikbud, 2018).  Before 2017, PPDB was done through open registration, allowing prospective students to choose which school they wanted to attend.  Ranking the results of the national test is used in the selection process.  Nevertheless, this system has several issues (Hendral & Sudiyatno, 2022).  PPDB is now maintained online through the use of a web-based information system.  When compared to other information systems, it differs in specific ways.  Because it manages enrollment, data management and validation, automated selection, and announcements connected to the student admission process, PPDB plays a crucial role in this event (Conference et al., 2020)

This zoning system aims to give all school-age children the same access to education.  The PPDB revenue scheme now depends on a student’s residence’s proximity to the school rather than their academic performance (zoning).  Certain school zones must admit students and not turn them away.  The PPDB’s zoning regulations mandate that students receive the education service nearest to their residence (Dewi & Septiana, 2018).

Choosing a school close to a student’s home is known as “zoning” a school.  It is common to use the terms “school zoning” and “school zonation” interchangeably.  These two expressions are frequently used to describe the situation in which applicants from particular zoning regions are only admitted if they are from those regions.  All local governments in Indonesia must follow Indonesian Ministry Regulation No. 17, 2017, which addresses school zoning.  According to this legislation, 90% of a school’s enrollment must originate from native residents of the zonation areas.  An additional 10% of the quota is allocated to support students who must move with their parents who are relocating due to exceptional circumstances, such as those involving outstanding achievement (up to 5%), and to help students who should follow their parents (Suryanto & Komary, 2019).

The School Zoning System Policy is intended to equalize access to education by bringing educational services closer to the community.  It is going through a process of equating education quality.  Teachers and students who demonstrate that they are socially and psychologically prepared for their teaching practices must also be restrained by this process (Mahasneh, 2015).

Through the administration of students, the admission student zoning system is another attempt to raise the standard of education.  For learning processes to continue functioning smoothly and orderly in schools, they must be regulated (Sururi & Nasihin, 2014).  If they are appropriately managed, learning processes in schools may contribute to the attainment of both school goals and broader educational goals.

Besides having advantages, school zoning policies also have disadvantages.  These deficiencies are in the form of the readiness of schools in the regions, such as facilities and infrastructure and the quality of educators who are not yet equal, the problem of achievement track policies that are considered not to accommodate needs in the field, the problem of determining the distance between schools and places of residence which causes the distribution of the number of students in each school to be unequal.  Balanced and the lack of active parental participation due to weak literacy related to the zoning system caused by the side effects of technical weaknesses in the field (Syakarofath et al., 2020).

Based on the problems above and the importance of studying the implementation of the zoning system, this paper aims to provide a vehicle for comprehensive knowledge about the implementation and evaluation of zoning system policies in Indonesia.

METHOD

This study used the literature review method, in which researchers concentrate on content analysis of reference materials accessible online.  The primary sources for the literature used in this study were scholarly papers created throughout the research procedure.  Articles were selected for at least the last ten years between 2013 and 2023.  For all kinds of studies, literature reviews serve as a crucial basis.  They can give proof of an impact, provide rules for policy and practice, serve as a foundation for knowledge growth, and, if done correctly, have the potential to spark new ideas and directions for a specific subject.  They are a foundation for further study and thought (Snyder, 2019).

In order to convey the analysis’ findings to the reading public in a methodical way, researchers conducted a relevant literature study before publishing the research results, which served as the sources of information for content analysis (Benzer & Ünal, 2021).  Search engines like Google Scholar, which offer indexing services exclusively for scientific articles, were used to find literature sources.

DISCUSSION

Zoning System

According to the KBBI, zoning separates an area into many segments in line with the purposes and management goals.  Zones are regions with particular environmental features and purposes.  Zoning laws control how zones are classified, additional restrictions on land use, and processes for carrying out development.  The size and laws of a zone might fluctuate from one zone to another, but a zone has standard rules for land use, intensity, and construction mass (Dewi & Septiana, 2018).  The regulation’s key components include 1) To be accepted by local government-run schools, at least 90% of applicants must live within the school’s zone radius.  2) The address on the family card, which must have been issued at least 6 (six) months before the start of new student admission, determines the residence of prospective students who are part of the school zoning system.  3) The local government determines the closest zone radius of the zoning system based on the local circumstances, taking into account the number of school-age children in the region as well as the capacity of the schools.  4) In determining the zone radius in the zoning system, the regional government consults with the school principal’s working groups/deliberations.  5) Written agreement between intergovernmental regional administrations can determine the proportion of student admissions and the closest zone radius for schools located in province, district, or city border regions.  6) There are a few other ways for prospective students to be accepted outside the zoning system, including the route of success, which has a maximum quota of 5% (five per cent) of the total number of students accepted.  7) In addition, with no more than 5% (five per cent) of the total number of approved children, the reason for the change in the parents’ or guardians’ residence or the causes of natural or artificial disasters.  8) The zoning system is a top priority in admitting new students junior and senior high schools.  Following the results of the elementary school level tests or the national junior high school exam.  9) The zone system is not required for vocational high schools.

Positive Impacts  of Zoning System

There are many studies about the positive impacts of the zoning system.  The study by Riswan & Wibowo (2020) showed that there were many positive impacts of the Zoning System.  1) The zoning system policy had a good effect on schools by increasing their sensitivity to the various requirements of students.  Additionally, each instructor must be able to enhance the quality of the instruction he provides while taking into account the diverse capacities of his students and 2) assist students with low minimum exam scores in completing their education. Rahmayanti et al. (2021), in their research, said that the outcome demonstrated that the zoning system might improve and equalize senior high school education quality, notably in Surabaya’s public senior high schools.

In another study in Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia, the study result of Firmansyah (2021) showed that most parents of children believed that the zoning system policy involved admitting new pupils based on geography, precisely the distance from the home to the school.  The benefit was that parents of students did not concern themselves with the cost of their children’s transportation.  The parents of the youngsters discovered that it was simpler to keep an eye on their kids’ behaviour at school and in their neighbourhood.

There are some examples of the beneficial effects of the adoption of a zoning system.  First, students with the most significant accomplishment levels are believed to inspire other students, and students with good behaviour can spread it to others.  Second, if a teacher is allowed to instruct low-achieving pupils, it will increase his ability to improve student learning.

Third, equal access to high-quality education for all students is a critical component of equity in education.  Fourth, from an economic perspective, this zoning scheme is thought to be more cost-effective in terms of time efficiency and transportation expenses while also bringing students closer to their home environment (Riyanti et al., 2020)

Zoning policy on student enrolment is thought to foster a more diverse culture in classrooms, ultimately leading to a more democratic society.  Students will become more tolerant as a result of frequent exposure to variety.  One of the most crucial things to keep this very heterogeneous country united is to have a good view of differences among the populace.  Therefore, providing an environment where young people may connect as soon as possible is crucial (Wardani & Budiraharjo, 2020).

Negative  Impacts of the Zoning System

Parents needed clarification on how zoning policies were put into reality.  Because the registration procedure uses an online system, parents with solid technological aptitudes can easily enrol their kids in the program.  Consequently, parents still travel straight to the school of their choice, but if they had access to the internet, they could also register their children there (Bakar et al., 2019).  According to the study findings by Hardiono et al. (2020), quite a few students resigned as fresh prospective students were officially accepted at the institution of choice (for the high school level).  One of the aspects that eliminates prejudice in education is the absence of socialization that prospective students receive when adapting to the usage of the online New Student Admissions (PPDB) software with the zoning system.

According to Noor (2020), one of the adverse effects of the zoning system is alleged action fraud.  One of the requirements that must be met is that the prospective student’s family cards were issued 6 (six) months before the implementation of the acceptance of new students.  The zoning system is implemented based on the distance between a prospective student’s house (domicile/residence) and the desired school.  Furthermore, some parents will take the risk of obtaining a Family Card with a domicile closer to the school’s location to ensure their children attend the school of their choice.  However, this violates the requirements of the new zoning system for student admission.

Due to the zoning system, schools can no longer choose students based on whatever criteria or standards they may have previously employed when the zoning system has yet to be implemented.  Since the school does not influence these students’ inputs, new students resulting from the zoning system may cause the input data to be greater or lower than new students resulting from a previous enrolment method.  Finally, enrolment in some schools will be simple for students with strong academic credentials or who excel in particular subject areas  (Djatmiko et al., 2022).

Another impact, private schools are not required to use the zoning scheme, although they are nonetheless affected by the rule.  Since many potential students in densely populated private schools have already enrolled in public schools, these institutions will lose a significant amount of prospective students.  Because they would instead be admitted to good private schools than the middle-low quality public schools in their zone, many high-achieving students will attend high-quality and famous private schools instead of their preferred ones.

The zoning student enrolment system was already in place in several other nations before Indonesia, including Japan, Finland, The Republic of Korea, The United States, and Australia.  A country’s implementation of a zoning system for schools aims to increase service and level the quality of education across the board while also attempting to reduce disparities and competitiveness amongst educational institutions nationwide (Martitah, 2019).  In general, the zoning policy governing admissions mandates that students who live closer to the school are more entitled to admission than students with accomplishments or academic standing; as such, the distance or the radius between the student’s vicinity to the school matters in the zoning policy.  The equality of educational opportunities, time savings for kids due to nearby schools, more cost-effective commuting methods, healthier students, and a decrease in traffic, particularly in large cities, are all benefits of this system (Batita & Tsai, 2020).

The effects of the school zonation system on society have been shown by several research conducted worldwide.  Parental objections about what they perceive as unjust school zoning are rising.  There were two disagreements over what educational equity meant.  This can refer to having equal chances or results (Põder et al., 2017).  The school level determines whether or not a school has similar learning results; it has nothing to do with the parents’ backgrounds.  The activities of school stakeholders primarily create a school’s learning results.  For instance, Finland’s public schools have a high degree of autonomy in deciding how to implement their curricula, and as a result, students there achieve higher levels of learning.  A New Zealand policymaker repealed the school zoning rule in order to maintain individual equality.  The policy’s repeal alters how students decide to proceed with their education, and studies show that many of them favour picking neighbouring institutions as their study locations (Mandic et al., 2018).

Both parents and children are impacted by the fact that there is still a duality of preferred schools.  High-achieving students would be less inclined to enrol in newly opening, high-quality schools in their area and more likely to feel inferior due to failures at their target schools.  In other instances, a student who lives in a densely populated area will need to put less work into the admissions process because they can choose from any public school in the area.  If parents’ children were not admitted to the schools they wanted to attend, they would regret and suffer against the government (Batita & Tsai, 2020).

CONCLUSION

The implementation of zoning-based student admissions has been going on for five years.  There are positive and negative impacts of this policy.  However, there are several obstacles in its implementation, such as the lack of preparedness of the local government in determining the zones and the understanding of various communities that causes its implementation to be not optimal.  In addition, the perception of the favourite school dichotomy still influences parents and students in choosing a school.  Therefore, having an equal distribution of quality education and adequate human resources in all corners of the country is necessary.  The qualifications of teachers, the type of field of study required, the ratio of teachers to students, the employment status of teachers (state or honorary/non-permanent teachers), and the possession of a certified professional teacher must all be taken into account when calculating the formation of teacher needs in each region.

RECOMMENDATION

Every year, it is essential to assess the effectiveness of the teachers, keeping in mind that the number of students accepted by each school can influence the requirement for teachers.  The regional staffing agency (BKD), which may keep an eye on teacher concentration points in specific schools, must be involved in teacher transfers by the Education Office to be successful.  Broad socialization as an effort to deepen the introduction of regulations and policies to the public also needs to be addressed, with the hope that a coherent point of view will be obtained between the community and the government.

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