All principals of USP schools and MQIP madrasahs got together in the event known as Principal Mentoring VI. The event took two days, the 25th and the 26th of February 2009, hosted by SMAN 5 Bukittinggi, West Sumatera. On both days, the team from Systems Development at School Development Programs familiarized the more-explored School Quality Indicators (SQI) to the attendees. On the first day, the 1.5-hour discussion was mainly focused on the SQI in general, in order to refresh the memory about the importance of SQI’s application in schools. On the second day, the next step of SQI familiarization was done in another 1.5 hour as group activities, which were video-taped and discussed.

Showing the strategy to utilize SQI, the program is believed to be useful for all principals. During the program the principals learned the important knowledge of how SQI could initiate discussions within school management teams, and the importance of groups’ joint efforts to comprehend SQI. The dialogs that were initiated during the group-work and exercises were meant to be the example for them, in order to make school management teams aware of the best strategy to fully comprehend the document. The principals would then take the practice they learned from the program to their own schools, group their school management teams and start the process of understanding SQI. Understanding SQI is crucial before performing assessments particularly on the language use because assessors must fully comprehend every indicator, descriptor and criterion.

The event was successful. Ibu Wien Sukarsih, Principal of SMAN 2 Sekayu, South Sumatera said, “The workshop is very useful for us. We should explore the use of SQI more.”

Sampoerna Foundation hopes that SQI is implemented in the schools, and initiated by the principals. The best way to ensure that the positive process done well is by having SQI users using and sharing SQI Best Practice, and understanding the steps to follow.