All schools to be accredited

JAKARTA: The Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar swore in on Tuesday 23 members of the National School Accreditation Body (BAS) whose main task is to appraise the quality of schools at all levels nationwide.

"It's embarrassing but we have to be honest about our quality of education. We may say that our education is growing in terms of number of schools, but it's not innovative," he said to reporters after the ceremony.

The problem, he said, had prompted the government to set up an institution to ensure that schools met national standards throughout the country.

Following the national BAS, provinces, regencies, and municipalities will set up their own BAS. The BAS' offices in regencies and municipalities will evaluate preschools to junior high schools while BAS' provincial offices will evaluate senior high schools.

They would then report to the national BAS, which will give recommendations to improve the quality of education.

The accreditation body's members -- both national and local -- will be selected from communities, besides representatives from the government. --JP