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

Abstract

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 otherwise 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 development functions) 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 ensure all 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.