SUB-NATIONAL INNOVATION POLICY: A UNIVERSAL ENTITLEMENT TO EDUCATION GRANT IN SABANG, INDONESIA

This article studies a universal entitlement to education grant in Sabang that shows policy making at subnational government level in Indonesia. The policy is designed and implemented by Sabang municipality of Aceh province to help students at primary and secondary schools who would other wise struggle with the cost of education. Desk study and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the major and high-ranking officials from related government departments in Sabang. The results show the central local relations has not been easy to be understood by lower tier of governments. While the distribution of authorities between central and subnational government (such as: in education developmentfunctions) has not been well defined, the Sabang Education Grant (SEG) has been evidence of how a municipality government exercise the discretion and decision-making power. The transfer of authority and responsibility under the decentralization is instrumental in supporting the SEG policy formulation. The sub-national governments at special regions were given an authority to formulate policies to ensureall students have access to educational services. To implement this policy, Sabang municipality government regulate the operational procedures to implement the processes, define the technical guideline, establish the expert and management team as well as provide the tools to support the policy implementation.

common at national and sub-national level, state-funded scholarship and grants typically address financial needs of all students at basic education level and of low-income students.
The evidence of positive results have been reported from some countries: Finland ensure every one has educational opportunities, student financial aidis designed to benefit a large proportion of students. Free basic education, text books and a daily meal coupled with early intervention, support and guidance made this country to be one of OECD"s top PISA performers since 2000 (OECD, 2013). In Finland"spre-primary and basic education, student financial aid is funded by the state and municipalities. While municipalities fund 75 percent of the costs, the amount of the state funding is based on the number of 6 -15-year olds living in the municipality. The financial autonomy of schools varies from municipality to municipality. Quite often municipalities allocate a budget for each school and schools decide independently how to use it. (European Comission, 2021). In Denmark, there form to reduce inequities in access to higher education by raising the level of grants by more than 25% for all students above 19 years of age have resulted positive impacts; there form significantly lowered the drop out rate of students from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds (Arendt, 2013).
According to UNICEF, "cash transfers are a proven, practical intervention to address poverty and improve children"swell-beingacross a range of outcomes, including health, nutrition and education". Some countries have attempted to improve poverty rate and increase the access to education through the universal grants intervention. i.e.Nepal"s universal child grant reaches substantially more poor children and is better at reaching the poorest of the poorth and alit -and poverty -targeted approaches (UNICEF, 2016). In four sub-Saharan countries (namely: Uganda, Lesotho, Ethiopia, and Malawi), the attempt to provide full access to free primary education -including the provision of the block granthas led to massive increases in children accessing schools (Prewetal, 2011).
In Indonesia, a minimum 20 percent of public expend it ure is devoted to education with funding coming from central, state, and local government. One of the most prominent grant program in the country is school grants (BOS) which allocates operational funding to schools. In 2014, the BOS program provided funds to the average primary (junior secondary) school of approximately US$10,000. It has been in operation for a decade, the study by World Bank (2014) shows that it has reduced house holds" spending for education cost, increased school participation, enhanced school management. For example: the survey data reveals that annual educations pending for house holds with children in primary and junior secondary fell by about 6 percent in the first year after BOS was introduced (Al-Samarrai, 2015).

Sub-National Innovation Policy: A Universal Entitlement to Education Grant in Sabang, Indonesia
Renaldi Safriansyah

AL-IJTIMA`I: International Journal of Government and Social Science|29
The universal policies designed to ensure free basic education by sub national governments have not always been easy in the formulation as well as implementation. The literature gives little guidance as to the best strategies for decentralized lower tier of governments in policy formulation. The complexity of policy made at different levels of government make public policy far more complex today than in the past (Evans, 2020).
This study describes over all picture of Sabang Education Grant (SEG) in term of policy design, mechanism and discussions of its direction and enforcement. This policy is devoted to increase people well being in line with principle of a universal entitlement to education.
The initiative begun in 2013, under this scheme, the government have been allocating on average about IDR 16 billion each year, the grant allocation is directed to fulfil the rights of each child to education; students reserve the rights to public subsidies because their attadance at school is compulsory. Therefore, this policy is necessary to reinforce 12 (twelve) years of compulsory schooling which starts at the age of seven to eighteen years.

B. Methodology
The methodology used for this study is desk review and interview. Desk review is under taken to analyse key documents including regulations (legal framework of the programme), planning and budget document, guidelines, and education statistics. A semi structured interview with open-ended question is employedin this study. The researcher host meetings with provincial and district level decision-makers and stakeholders from key relevant agencies especially education dinas and Bappeda. This includes exclusive interviews with Mayor of Sabang and relevant individuals from member of local parliament.

Regulatory Framework for Subnational Policies
The decentralization in Indonesia offers a legal framework for the delivery of quality education at subnational level, the central government extend of authorities to local governments to formulate and implement policies that contribute to the improvement of access and quality of education. Over the last decade, decentralization of education management has strengthened this basic service sector, education management has changed fundamentally in terms governance and financing. After the enactment of Law Being a municipality within Aceh province -a special autonomy province in Indonesia -Sabang reserves an authority administering its own educational sector.Sabang is qualified both as "a frontier" and "a special region". Under the Act No. 34/2012 on criteria for special region and provision of special allowances for teachers, Sabang municipality is categorized as "a frontier region" given that it is geographically located in the most northern administrative region which has direct borders with three countries, namely Malaysia, Thailand and India. Then, the Government Regulation No. 17/2010 on education management article 32 (2) states that head of district/municipality in special region has authority to issue education policies that ensuring the students have access to education. In that manner, the Mayor of Sabang has the authority to formulate policies that foster a better access to education. Moreover, Law No. 11/2006 on "self-government in Aceh" granted this province as a special autonomy with authorities to prioritize education development and is entitled to special autonomy fund. Fiscal decentralization is clearly empowered the municipality government to manage their funding for better public delivery services. Law No. 33/2004 on fiscal balance arrangements reaffirms that Indonesia is a unitary state within which broad regional autonomy is provided for a fundamental aim is to provide for reasonable equalization between regions, with narrowing of fiscal gaps which are broadly defined as regional fiscal needs. The Municipality of Sabang has been receiving substantial fiscal transfer from central government mainly from general allocation fund (DAU) component.
This revenue is important source to Sabang"s fiscal capacity because the revenue obtained from the local sources such as taxes, retribution, profits from municipality owned company are lessthan 10%of the total revenue. Other sources of revenue are limited. i.e. from 2008 to

Sub-National Innovation Policy: A Universal Entitlement to Education Grant in Sabang, Indonesia
Renaldi Safriansyah

AL-IJTIMA`I: International Journal of Government and Social Science|31
2014, the general allocation fund (DAU), accounts on average for 65 percent, while the revenue obtained from local sources averaged 6,6 percent of total revenues.

Sabang Universal Education Grant as Innovation Policy
Sabang education grant is money from the Sabang municipality government of the amount IDR 2 million is available through grants every year for all students enrolled at primary and secondary level to support 12-year compulsory education. The grant is purposed to reduce the burden of the parents paying for the school-needs of their children.
By ensuring every child has access to affordable school-needs, it is expected to improve learning achievement, character building, and becoming human resources investment for the future development of Sabang.
The grant is principally universal; it is given to all students who resides and admitted at schools in Sabang, including (1) students who are enrolled in public, private or integrated boarding schools; (2) Students studying at elementary level, junior and senior high schools. The allow able expenses under this scheme is specified in the Mayor"s degree No.8/2016 on technical guidelines on management of educational grant of special/frontier region for students of 12 (twelve) years compulsory education program in Sabang, the grant money should be spent on items of students" school needs: school uniform, stationary, extra-curricular activities and learning supports. Under the term and reference, the grantees are prohibited to spend grant money for other purposes. The sanction will be imposed for any violation of grant utilisation.
The SEG aims to: (i) ensure free and compulsory 12 (twelve) year education programs for all students; (ii) improve self-confidence and learning motivation among student in the learning and interaction process; and (iii) improve student achievement through various educational activities that foster the spirit of learning and competition.
With regard to SEG expenditure, in total, from 2013 to 2016, the government has spent IDR 59,2 billion to fund the students for their school-needs. This funding is sourced from municipality budget (APBD) in particular from General Allocation Fund (DAU). The average annual expenditure for SEG is estimated to be IDR 14,8 billion which cover more than 7,000 students from primary to secondary education. Each year (other than 2015), the expensest end to increase adapting to increasing number of student; the average increase in number of grantees is 3 percent per year. The spending for elementary schools has the largest share compared to middle and senior high schools. More than IDR 8 billions of grant monies every year were spent to students studying at elementary schools -students enrolled at this education level accounted for 60 percent of total students in Sabang. In Sabang has been making continuous efforts toward a quality of education for all children which had relatively better gains on accessibility, quality and competitiveness.
The Sabang"s human development index has been improving, the HDI report in 2015 ranked Sabang at fourth relative to other districts in Aceh, it has grown 1,42 percent (above the average of 0,93 percent for districts in Aceh) compared to a year before. According to BPS (2015) the factors that led to this progress has been the increase in education outcomes Most of spending allocated to teachers" salary, schools infrastructure.

Policy initiation, formulation, and mechanism
The SEG initiated by Zulkifli Adam and his vice Nazaruddin who were running for mayoral candidate in 2012. During their political campaign, they have promised the public to offer an annual grant for all student attended schools in Sabang. A reality had appeared in many schools where some students show up at schools in worn-out uniform, lack of books and stationary. They offer such universal grant policy to the public in Sabang expecting them to afford to buy basic school-needs and thinking of the students to be moremotivated and confident in learning and there for eboost their achievement.
Once elected as the Major of Sabang, efforts to design and formulate the SEG has taken seriously by the Mayor. They initially experienced "a deadlock" for that policy proposal, it happened due to conflicting opinions -especially between Sabang executive officials and some legislative members. The debate was mainly on legal and formal aspects

Sub-National Innovation Policy: A Universal Entitlement to Education Grant in Sabang, Indonesia
Renaldi Safriansyah

AL-IJTIMA`I: International Journal of Government and Social Science|33
of the policy. Such innovation policy had appeared like a controversial due to the different interpretation of the legal standing, many have advocated the standing doctrine for a municipality to design, formulate, and implemenent such policy. Futhermore, the initial consultation with provincial executive and MOHA has not reaching expected deals.
On the other hand, the Provincial Government provided nostanceon the policy proposal. The Ministry of Home Affair (MOHA) has disagreed for this policy to becovered under their regulations 1 . Nonetheles, after serious sub sequent efforts, The MOHA and Sabang government have found a common ground as basis to put this policy into design and formulation. Both parties has ultimately reached a general consensus that universal grant policy can be formulated primarily under Government Regulation No. 17/2010 on education management. The success of this initiative represents "a break through" toward a quality education at sub national level.
To turn his innovation policy into actions, Major Zulkifli has issued a number of regulations and decree that specifies the design, implementation, monitoring and reporting. Figure 3 shows SEG policy mechanism, policy direction with sequential phase from planning budgeting, implementation, to monitoring, supervision and reporting.
Planning and budgeting process is the initial phase, followed by implementation phase after the budget"s deliberation. Once grant money is disbursed to grantees, monitoring evaluation phase is undertaken to ensure the grant is progressing well. The last phase is supervision and inspection which incorporates functional and close supervision. The sanctions will be imposed for any abuse and violating the SEG"s term and reference.
The planning and development board (Bappeda) of Sabang has included the SEG in their medium-term development plan (RPJM), it became one of strategic programs for the Zulkifli"s administration, the SEG follows annual regular planning and budgeting cycle.
Within this cycle, the municipality government work plan (RKPD) which reflects choices, priorities and strategies provides a basis for preparation of annual budget for the SEG.
Based on its term of reference, the Sabang Education Department prepares budget proposal (RKA) in which SEG is listed as one of the items in the municipality budget and then it is submitted to parliament in the month of May of the preceding year for deliberation. After that, the education commission conducts preliminary discussion in June. As a follow up to this preliminary discussion, the Education Department prepares budget for the following year and is submitted to the parliament by August of its preceding year for deliberation.

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As a follow up to the enactment of the budget, implementation phase immediately taken under the supervision of Education Department. A team consists of the experts and a management team is established to carry out program activities to include: socialization, data collection, verification, and disbursement. A clear directions and enforcement is given with regard to SEG implementation. At the initial stage, the management team "socialize" and advocates education grant to all school principals and then, the home room teachers and so home room teachers, students and their parents and guardians. Data collection and verification follows simultaneously at two level: the school and education dinas. Grant disbursement follows principles of municipality"s financial management, the Major decree serves as basis for disbursement of grant to students through their bank account. The stepby-step process of grant disbursement can be unders to od further by referring to Figure 2.

Figure 1. SEG Policy Mechanism
In term of timing, the SEG follows both academic and fiscal year calender. Whilst fiscal year period in January to December, the academic year is based on a two-semester system which starts in July in a particular year and end in June of the following year. Furthermore, monitoring and reporting follows in the month of January to February.

Figure 2. SEG Disbursement Process
The SEG disbursement process through which the grant transferred to the students is managed at two levels; initially at the education dinas and then later at the General Treasurer. The disbursement officially made to student in September, three months after the start of the school year of the on going fiscal year, nonetheless, actual disbursement period may delay due to budgeting process. The disbursement process is managed by education dinas by following the guidelines on financial management. Disbursement of grant is not only engaging the treasurer and budget officer but also involving management team. As shown in Figure  The grantee will be notified of money with drawal schedule and the money can be with drawn in two terms -once per each semester. When with drawing the money from the appointed bank, students should be accompanied by the parents/guardian and are required to show the letter of recommendation from a home room teacher. This recommendation is subject to the declaration of grantutilization by the grantee in which they declare that the grant will be spent as per term and conditions. This letter should be sign -off by the parents/guardian prior to request a recommendation from home room teacher. Such restrictions were made in order to encourage the students to spend the money accordingly.
The monitoring and reporting are under taken to track the SEG progress to ward reaching its targets. It is to ensure that the grant beings pent on the items or activities as specified in the agreement. The management team is obligated to prepares the evaluation report. The monitoring and reporting is under taken at two level: first, at the school and then, at education dinas. The school-based monitoring and reporting plays important roles, it has been in thefore front, school principal/head masters and teachers are usually aware of what is happening in the field, they are obligated to (i) monitor grant disbursement and expenses, they should monitor the students" spending the money for allow able items, (ii) teachers to observe the students on the spot (i.e. checking whether they wear a decent uniform, shoes, etc. If the students are found show up at the school in shab by clothes or without full uniform, the teacher will follow up with their parent). The thespot observation is the mechanism in place to ensure that the students comply with the grant"s term and reference. (iii) The head masters is responsible for administration, such as storing students" files, document, and copies of saving account which all required for monitoring and internal audit by the Inspectorate and State Supreme Auditing Agency (BPK RI). In addition, head masters also responsible to issue notifications to each parties whereany violations of the SEG"s terms of reference. Head masters to submit monitoring report to the Management Team at Education Dinas at least 2 (two) months after the fiscal year ends.
At the dinas level, the management team officially compiling the monitoring report and managing the complaint mechanism. To this end, they are receiving feed backs and

Sub-National Innovation Policy: A Universal Entitlement to Education Grant in Sabang, Indonesia
Renaldi Safriansyah

AL-IJTIMA`I: International Journal of Government and Social Science|37
complaint and the provide the recommendations concerning SEG"s evaluation. The team prepares monitoring report to the Head of Education Dinas then the roport will be forwarded to the Mayor before the end of the fiscal year. In addition, the provision of internal and external supervision, inspection and sanction are in place as essential elements to ensure a proper practice of grant management.

D. Conclusion
Political decentralisation in Indonesia has devoted the functions of public service to be delivered by local governments. Although the distribution of authorities between central and local governments in certain functions has not been well defined, the innovation policy at sub national level that is -Sabang Education Universal Grant -has been an evidence of how a municipality government the exercise of discretion and decision-making power. Under unitary-type of decentralization, policies at sub national level have not always been easy in the design and formulation, while literature gives little guidance as to the best strategies for lower tier of government to exercise its discretion and formulate policies. The finding of this study describes the SEG policy design, formulation, and mechanism. SEG has been implemented to fulfilling the rights of each child to education. To put SEG policy into actions, the Sabang executive has gone through series of discussions with provincial and central government. To guide its impelentation, the Mayor of Sabang then issued local regulations on operational procedures (the technical guideline), the expert and management team have been assigned to provides tools that support the implementation, and the team also manages front-liners to execute the program.
Futhermore, the team manage the financials, monitoring and reporting as well as receives feed backs and provides recommendations.

Acknowledgement:
This work was supported by UNICEF Indonesia. The author with to thank Andi Yoga Tama who has supported the entire process of this study, and the author would like to appreciate all those who facilitated the interviews, special thanks to Mayor of Sabang Bapak Zulkifli Adam and Bapak Kamaruddin for providing information and responsive to our requests. We highly appreciate their time and efforts in sharing with us their views during the meetings, including those provided feed backs and data. This study is aimed to be as objective as possible. The data and analysis provided in this article do not necessarily reflect the view of the funder. Responsibility for any possible errors remains with the author.