One of the government’s main tasks is to develop and implement policy. Problems occur, the goals are set and the government has to tackle and achieve them through policy.
The ordinary route is: Decision makers collect and crunch data surrounding the problems and goals, analysis is carried out and the result is a policy. Some policies eradicate a problem or achieve the goal, but some do not. Worse, failed policies frequently weigh on the budget.
The certification of all teachers is targeted for 2015. The salary is to be increased after certification and the budget allocation raised. The program significantly reduces moonlighting and household problems.
These policies sound good and plausible and these efforts result in our students becoming more academic. Unfortunately, World Bank-funded research shows no significant correlation between higher funding — including teacher certification — to children’s performance PISA (Program for International Student Assessment).
The program fails because the certification system is bad or the quality teachers is so poor that no improvements can be made through the program. If the latter prevails, then our national education is in jeopardy.
This raises the question; Is there a better method to develop policy out there. Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) might be the best method available.
So, alternatives of solution or intervention are tested on a small scale to find the best. RCT method is test, learn, adapt. All options are tested, the results are learned by measuring the impact and the option chosen must be adapted based on the lessons-learned and then back to the first step, test it again.
Having been widely used in medicine, this method is all the rage when testing policy, sales method (what website creates more sales), business (how much money needed to effectively fund start-ups), court service (what kind of text message results in the most fine repayments), etc.
The implementation of RCT will cost less because of its scale and more importantly, RCT can reverse — or shift — policy if it is failing. This brings us back to Indonesia’s education policy.
Research by McKinsey says money is not the only thing that improves education. It suggested: hire the best. The policy chalks the quality of teachers up to the quality of education. The top performers at universities must be recruited to be teachers.
This definitely cuts right to the core issue of teacher quality in contrast with certification program. Finland, South Korea and Singapore do this and they succeed. This convinces us that there are many alternatives out there. Certainly, if this policy was implemented in Indonesia, it would not necessarily end up with the same result.
It is time to change our policies for poverty eradication, economic corridor development, provision of water and sanitation and bureaucratic reforms, which tend to generalize problems and solutions. It is too risky and costly. Once, it goes haywire, it is hardly ever fixed. Since there will likely be no one-fit-all solution, RCT is worth trying.
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