School: General Information and Academic Administration

PAUD Kemala Bhayangkari is a public school under the management of the Police in which partnered with an organization called the Yayasan Bhayangkari, which are the wives of the police, in handling the school. There are almost a hundred pupils attending to school that’s divided into five classes which includes, Class A which is the Nursery pupils aged four and Class 1 to Class 4 the Kindergarten pupils who has age ranges from five to six years old. Bahasa Indonesia and/or Bengkulu language are used as a medium of instruction inside and outside their classrooms where the English language wasn’t required to be taught to the pupils, but they do know how to count from one to ten in English. Both the teachers and pupils attend classes from Monday to Saturday wherein each day has different set of activities to be done. Monday to Thursday classes have a regular routine which includes, singing of nursery rhyme songs, greetings, counting, and prayer then proceed to the discussion proper. While on Fridays, with an assigned pupil to lead, the teachers and pupils would pray altogether. After, it would be the time to have their band practice where each pupil has its own role in creating a wonderful music. And on Saturdays, usually it would only be for extra co-curricular activities such as having their band practice. All throughout the week, with six regular days of studying, the school has a rich system in providing the pupils many learning opportunities and experiences with a package of their own language and culture.

Bengkulu is a province that is yet to be civilized and so technology wasn’t widely used in their school but they do have desktops. All five classrooms have their own whiteboards that were hanged according to the eye level of the kids. The blocks, legos, balls, and other toys were available and accessible to the kids whenever they feel like playing. The teachers there do not restrict the pupils in using it before class, on break time, and after class, and they would just have to fix and pack it up when they’re done using it. Each corner of the classroom has its own learning space to render service for additional learning and/or to support their learning experiences. In particular the Play Area, Arts and Crafts Area, Music Area, Nature and Planting Area, and Reading corner. Sometimes, the teachers use the mentioned materials into integrating it in their lessons to capture and keep the interest of the pupils. Charts of the alphabets, months of the year, days of the week, numbers, and colors were posted on the wall of the classrooms wherein whenever the teacher would use it, they would just point at it. The playground help the development of the child wherein it covers physical, social, moral, mental, and emotional domains, basically holistically. Furthermore, the school organizes a field trip for the pupils every month escorted by the police bus. They visit different places to explore and learn while having fun.

There are a lot of tools on how to assess a child’s performance which can be checklists, rating scales, rubrics, portfolios, exams and peer evaluation. As I have mentioned earlier, the student and teacher ratio is small and so the teachers can intently focus on observing each of their pupils’ development because in PAUD Kemala Bhayangkari 26 they use a checklist in evaluating their pupils. A checklist that’s given by the National Education wherein it covers seven major aspects which includes Moral Values and Religion, Motor Physics, Cognitive, Language, Emotional, Art, Character and Self-Development, that they believe are important in the development of each child. The standards that they deeply look into are according to the age of the pupils and the developmental milestone. They do not give numerical grades into the child’s artworks nor paper works. The teachers prepare the report cards of their students each semester wherein in one school year, they have two semesters. Along together with the checklist, they measure the performance of each pupil by writing a narrative. Parent-Teacher conference isn’t held there since they see the parents every day but during the distribution of report cards, they talk to parents individually about the child’s performance.

The curriculum used in the school was prepared and given to them by the National Education yearly. It’s a manual that’s composed of the lessons, themes, and suggested activities to be done in line with the topics. Each theme or topic is discussed for the whole week to ensure understanding and mastery of knowledge and skills of the pupils. In terms of the curriculum development model, the school is predominantly leaned on the process model. Where grades aren’t the prime objective and focuses more on how each learner develops over a period of time. In the matter of curriculum design wherein it is the organization of a curriculum, the school put into action a subject-centered design. It contemplates around a certain subject matter or discipline which is according to the themes needed to be tackled.

A lesson plan is a teacher’s specific instruction and description of the subject matter for a discussion/lesson. A daily lesson plan is prepared by the teacher to guide and facilitate a more harmonious transition of the teaching and learning experiences. Since the themes, topics, and the suggested activities are already given from the Curriculum, the teacher would only need to think and prepare the lesson flow wherein the teachers prepare daily a Detailed Lesson Plan. The activities suggested there were simple and appropriate to the capabilities of the pupils. Most of the time it would only be about coloring and on how to write the words needed to be familiar with. Their lesson plan includes the following: Date, Section, Theme, which semester, Subject Matter, Time Allocation, Tools and Materials, and the Process of Activity. The Process of Activity are divided into four parts namely: the Prelimary, Core Activities, Resting Activities, and the Summary. The Preliminary portion or more likely the Motivation has a time allotment of about thirty minutes, Core Activities or the discussion proper for a minimum of an hour, Resting Activities such as coloring, writing activities or board works that would take about thirty minutes, and the End Activities, the summary and review of the activities of the day for about thirty minutes.