CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of The Study

Community demands toward human resource need in the present are

growing up. Now, everyone is required to have specific skills as the ability

that can be used to survive. Education is considered as the only way to expect

to deliver a better future generation. Thus, education challenge in Indonesia is

increasingly complex.

To respond the problem, Indonesian government issues a national

education vision “Cerdas Berdaya Saing 2025” (Indonesian students are able

to compete intelligently in 2025) with the ideal is Indonesian students are not

only able to compete nationally but also globally toward the people in the

world.1 The students, as a manifestation of the next generation, are not only

taught pure and applied science, but also are expected to have the ability to

interact others well. They need to have good and perfect language skills so

that they are able to interact in their community, whether it is either among

domestic or foreign public interaction globally. English, as an international

language, is one of important one to master as a communication tool that can

be applied in international interface.

1 Dede Rosyada, “Good Governance dalam Pengelolaan Pendidikan Tinggi Agama Islam” Paper presented at Seminar Nasional: Kontribusi Pendidikan bagi Pembangunan Bangsa dan Negara; Menciptakan Negara yang Bersih dan Berwibawa serta Masyarakat Makmur dan Sejahtera, Langsa, 18 September 2012.

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The rapid global communication and interaction have placed English as

one of the absolute media needs. Without the ability to speak adequate

English, high school graduates will face many problems in establishing global

interaction. English is a language used globally. Global language is used by

different nations to communicate to others around the world. Moreover, the

use of English as a learning media widely leads mastering the language

cannot be avoided.

English is a tool to communicate both spoken and written. The definition

of communication in this case is to understand and express information,

thoughts, feelings, and to develop science, technology, and culture in English.

Communication skills are also as the ability to understand the discourse fully.

Similarly, in the context of education, English serves as a tool to

communicate in order to access information and in the context of everyday

life, as a means to foster interpersonal relationships, information exchange

and enjoy the esthetic of language in particular culture, especially the culture

in countries that use English as their native language. More specifically,

English is the international language that is considered very important as a

tool or medium for absorbing, transferring, and developing of science,

technology, art and culture, and fostering relationships with other nations. By

studying English, then, someone will open horizons and knowledge

internationally. Therefore, learning English is very important to give to

students currently in global world of information.

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Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional or RSBI (Pilot International

Standard School) is a program initiated by the government to address the

need. The program allows the students to learn English more, because it

requires teachers—except for several subjects, such as Bahasa, Religion,

Civic Education, and History—to use English as teaching learning instruction

in the class. Certainly, the more students in contact with English during

learning process, the wider exposure they get in learning English.

However, in its implementation, the program was getting mixed-reviews

from the public. Public assumed that the program raises castes in education.

In addition, to support the program is going well, people were required to pay

an additional fee. It made it a costly program. It implicated the program was

only accessible to the rich one. In addition, the people were concerned that

the program was a gateway liberalization and capitalization of education in

Indonesia. This concerned along with fear of loss of identity of the

Indonesian people, because English was so widely used as the language of

instruction in the teaching and learning activities. Naturally, it leads the use of

Bahasa is very limited in some subjects only.

Of these concerns, then, on 28 December 2011, the people applied for a

judicial review of Article 50 Section 3 of Undang-Undang Republik

Indonesia Nomor 20 Tahun 2003 Tentang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional (a

constitution to regulate educational system in Indonesia) that became the

constitutional foundation of the program. They reviewed judicially the article

toward the Constitution Preamble, Article 28C Section 1, Article 28E Section

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1, Article 28, Section 2, Article 31 Section 1-3, and Article 36 of Undang-

Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945 (Indonesian main

constitution). Petitioner formulated that Article 50 Section 3 of Undang-

Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 20 Tahun 2003 Tentang Sistem

Pendidikan Nasional against the nationalism and the obligation of the state to

the nation’s intellectual life, causing dualism education system in Indonesia,

forming liberalization of education and discrimination in education, as well as

eliminating the national identity.2

According to the lawsuit, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of

Indonesia finally granted that the Article is contrary to the Constitution and

does not have binding legal force. It implies the dissolution RSBI program in

Indonesia with a grace period until the end of the 2012-2013 academic year in

June 2013.

Apart from the above problems and demands, RSBI is an appropriate

program to develop English skills. It is because it allows English learning

focuses on skills in using language, not only a knowledge-based teaching of

language as a phenomenon that often occurs in every single English class

throughout of Indonesia. It also creates a contextual learning environment in

teaching English with all available media and it may be an ICT-based

learning.

From the description above, it concludes that the RSBI program has

positive sides, especially in the development of students’ ability to speak

2 Putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi Republik Indonesia No. 5/PUU-X/2012, 174-177. available on www.mahkamahkonstitusi.go.id accessed on 1 April 2013

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English, so even though the program has been cancelled constitutionally, the

criteria can still be implemented. Moreover, the termination of the program is

not through an evaluation process first. Thus, the program implementation

needs to evaluate to find out the aspects of the program that have not been

realized. It leads the evaluation of the program can map elements that are not

done well and result of recommendations that can be used as input for the

government to formulate a better new programs to improve students’ English

skills.

SMP Negeri 1 Langsa is one of two schools in junior high level in

Langsa that were given the opportunity by the government to run the

program. A school is viewed as a system is a collection of related components

that work in a single unit to achieve a particular goal. The all components for

instance objectives, management, curriculum, facilities, teachers, and students

are as a school system that contributes to achieve mutual goals, in this case is

the effectiveness of school activities.

Based on the problem above, the researcher is interested in conducting an

evaluation study of RSBI implementation entitled: “An Evaluation of RSBI

Program Implementation in Improving Students’ English Skills at SMP

Negeri 1 Langsa (An Evaluative Research Based on CIPP Evaluation

Model).” Definitely, the results of this study can be inputs are taken into

consideration to revise the program in improving students’ English skills.

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B. The Problem of The Study

From the background above, a primary issue to be answered in this study

is how the implementation process of RSBI program in improving students’

English skills at SMP Negeri 1 Langsa? Seen from a primary issue above, the

researcher will discuss various issues in some more specific research

questions associated with it, as follows:

1. What are the official policies, program objectives and public

participation toward RSBI Program as context evaluation aspect at

SMP Negeri 1 Langsa?

2. How are the students’ recruitment procedure, curriculum, English

teachers, and learning infrastructures for improving students’

English skills as input evaluation aspect at SMP Negeri 1 Langsa?

3. How are the learning process and extracurricular activity to support

students’ English skills as process evaluation aspect at SMP Negeri 1

Langsa?

4. How are the students’ English achievements both in national and

international scope as product evaluation aspect at SMP Negeri 1

Langsa?

C. The Purpose of The Study

The purpose of this study is to determine clearly and accurately the

information about the implementation of the RSBI program in improving

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students’ English skills. Therefore, in detail the purposes of this study

formulates as follows:

1. To explore the official policies, program objectives and public

participation toward RSBI Program as context evaluation aspect at

SMP Negeri 1 Langsa.

2. To investigate the students’ recruitment procedure, curriculum,

English teachers, and learning infrastructures for improving

students’ English skills as input evaluation aspect at SMP Negeri 1

Langsa.

3. To find out the learning process and extracurricular activity to

support students’ English skills as process evaluation aspect at SMP

Negeri 1 Langsa

4. To identify the students’ achievements in English both in national

and international scope as product evaluation aspect at SMP Negeri

1 Langsa.

D. The Significance of The Study

Commonly, the significances of this research may be classified into two

aspects, they are theoretically and practically.

1. Theoretically

The study aims to inform everyone who is interested in RSBI

Program implementation either constitutionally or practically and the

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issue related to the program. It also contributes to identify the strength

and weakness of RSBI during the program is running.

2. Practically

The study constructs some recommendations. The government and

stakeholder can employ the recommendations as a guide or an input to

issue a program to develop students’ English skills better in the future.

E. Operational Definition

This study seeks to describe and map the implementation RSBI program

in improving students’ English language proficiency at SMP Negeri 1

Langsa. To avoid the differences in either understanding or interpreting in

this study, the researchers will explain the terms used in this study, include

the following:

1. Program Evaluation

Program evaluation in this study is the evaluation that is used to

investigate the program implementation and the limitation is simply to

evaluate the employment of the program components that are directly

related to the development of students’ English proficiency at SMP

Negeri 1 Langsa.

2. Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional (RSBI Program)

RSBI Program is the program that implemented in SMP Negeri 1

Langsa before the program was canceled by the constitution.

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3. Students’ English skills

Students’ English skills are the ability of students to communicate

actively in English. This capability consists of the ability in listening and

reading comprehension, speaking, and writing.

4. CIPP Evaluation Model

CIPP Evaluation Model is the evaluation model that use context,

input, process, and product of the program as the elements of evaluation. It

was developed by Stufflebeam in 1965.