The Relevance of Vocational High School Program With Regional Potency Priority in Indonesia

Abstract

This research aims at identifying: (1) the regional potency priority; (2) the relevance of vocational high school program with regional potency priority; and (3) the irrelevance factors of vocational high school program with regional potency priority in 34 provinces around Indonesia. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative design. The data was collected by employing website exploration approach, observation, documentation, questionnaire, interview, and FGD. As for the data analysis, it was conducted qualitatively and quantitatively. The results of this study confirm that: (1) potency priority in the western part of Indonesia includes social and community service, agriculture, manufacture or creative industry, and marketing; in the central part of Indonesia it is predominated by agriculture, services, art, industry, fishery, and forestry; in the eastern part of Indonesia the potential priorities are mining, agriculture, and forestry. (2) The level of relevance of Vocational High School program with potency priority in the region reaches below 50% in 26 provinces and 8 provinces reach above 50%. (3) The irrelevance occurred due to weak coordination between vocational school policy stakeholders, the absence of clustering on potency priority in the region as a recommendation to develop vocational high school program, and the insufficient evaluation regarding post-implementation vocational high school development program.