Education Management in Tackling Social Exclusion and Child Poverty

This study contributes to our understanding of the best practice of
the external bodies’ (government, parents and community) and
leadership participated on education management at local and
school level in tackling the problem of social exclusion and child
poverty toward Universal Primary Education (UPE). Four
conditions need to be met to make sure that the UPE is fulfilled in
this context, namely availability, accessibility, acceptability and
adaptability. This thesis is based on a single case study of Padang
Municipality, West Sumatra in Indonesia. Data was collected
through the study of documents, semi-structured interviews, and
participant observation.

Content analysis of the data demonstrates that education
management has taken many concrete steps in tackling the
problem of social exclusion and child poverty in Padang
Municipality. The awareness of parents to send their children to
school is outstanding. Government regulation and funding to
support education management in resolving the issues is strong,
and community involvement has also lightened the burden of
education management. Without overlooking the role of external
factors, the study found that the leadership of principals is key to
tackling the remaining problems. Based on fieldwork findings, best
practice in addressing the issue of social exclusion and child
poverty is by making the external bodies and schools participate
more actively in supporting education management together.
Moreover, here, the role of leadership is needed to become the
motor in empowering the externalities toward its institutional
goals.

Fieldwork also found some weaknesses in education management
in term of the admissions and assessment system, the skills of
teachers, the leadership of the principals, in curriculum and
utilisation of local curriculum, and the coordination between
education management and external bodies. If it so, it is
recommended to conduct research in that area to strengthen the
education management in achieving the next goals, providing an
inclusive and equitable quality of education and fulfilling twelve
years of compulsory education.