Pelaksanaan polisi wajib belajar di sekolah menengah pertama Kota Makassar

This research aims at analyzing the content of Government Regulation No. 47/2008 on Compulsory Education in Indonesia and its implementation related to operational funding policy on Compulsory Education in Makassar. It also studies the execution of funds in Junior High School. The study applied a mixed-methods approach in an embedded design. Data were collected through three stages, namely national, local, and school levels. The research instrument used for the national level was analysis on the policy documents of Compulsory Education, while the instruments for the local level were interviews and document analysis. At the school level, interviews, document analysis, observations, and open-ended questiontnaires were used. The validity and reliability of the instruments have been approved by experts. Respondents involved consist of two separate groups, namely local stakeholders (10 educational office staff and 4 members of local parliament); and school stakeholders (32 principals, 175 teachers, 195 parents, and 49 school committee members). From the school stakeholders, 17 people were taken as interviewees (5 school principals, 5 school committee members, and 7 teachers). The data obtained were analyzed by the method of data verification. The results of analysis on the document of Government Regulation No. 47/2008 showed that the concept of Compulsory Education, the authorization of the program management to the local government, and the operational financing that has to be shared by the central and local governments were not clear. However, compulsory operational funding policy was successful in reducing student dropout rate and regarded as a form of long term human resource investment. Nevertheless, the distribution of funds stll went through a long bureaucratic procedure, the accountability of its distribution to schools was still not clear and often overlapped. The accountability reports were submitted late and did not reach the targets of Compulsory Education program. The use of school operational funds was found to be successful to remove tuition fees, reduce textbook costs and prevent students from being dropouts despite the fact that operational funds could only cover about 60% of school operational needs. As a recommendation, it is necessary that the Government Regulation No. 47/2008 be revised to be an Act of Compulsory Education. The management, use, and supervision of school operational funds have to involve the participation of stakeholders and be transparent both at local and school levels