Graduation and Alumni Management

GRADUATION AND ALUMNI MANAGEMENT Alumni as the final product produced by educational institutions play an important role in the quality and existence of educational institutions that graduate them. Therefore, strategic efforts to pay attention to the existence of alumni must be carried out, because in addition to being the target of the quality of an educational institution, alumni are also a medium for evaluation and a benchmark for the success of an educational institution. And especially for alumni, of course, it is expected to show more concrete forms of their participation in improving the quality of their alma mater's educational services. A. Definition of Graduation The meaning of the word graduation according to the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI) is the act or condition of passing an exam and so on. Quoting Government Regulation Number 19 of 2005, Chapter X, Article 72 paragraph 1, students are declared to have graduated from an educational unit after completing all learning programs if: a) Obtaining a minimum score of good in the final assessment for all subjects, the group of subjects of religion and noble morals, the group of subjects of citizenship and personality, the group of subjects of aesthetics, and the group of subjects of physical, sports and health. b) Passing the school or madrasah exam for the group of subjects of knowledge and technology. c) Passing the national exam. The efforts made by students to be declared to have passed are by increasing the portion of study, educational units increasing the consolidation program, and the government preparing regulations and legislation, standard operating procedures, operational guidelines and technical instructions. These activities are to motivate students so that in the exam they can be declared to have passed by the educational unit. The assessment by the educational unit aims to assess the achievement of graduate competency standards for all subjects according to their program as a form of transparency, professionalism and accountability of the institution. In implementing this assessment, teachers consider the results of the student assessment. Schools can determine the passing limit to be the same as or greater than the limit formulated by the National Education Standards Agency (BSNP). The assessment is carried out for two weeks. The assessment by the government aims to assess the achievement of graduate competency nationally in certain subjects. In its implementation, the government assigned BSNP to organize a national exam that was held for three days. The results are one of the considerations for mapping the quality of the program, the basis for selection to enter the next level of education, determining the graduation of students, coaching and providing assistance to schools in efforts to improve the quality of education. B. Graduate Competency Standards Graduate Competency Standards (SKL) are criteria regarding the qualification of graduate abilities that include attitudes, knowledge, and skills. In addition, SKL is also used as the main reference for developing content standards, process standards, education assessment standards, educator and education personnel standards, facility and infrastructure standards, management standards, and financing standards. SKL consists of criteria for qualification of student abilities that are expected to be achieved after completing their study period at an educational unit at the elementary and secondary education levels. SKL is a benchmark or criterion for student learning success at a certain level of education. Therefore, the formulation of SKL is the same for each level of education, so it can be concluded that SKL is a graduate profile, namely a dream competency that is expected to be possessed by every graduate at a certain level. SKL is a description of the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that are dreamed of being possessed by every student who has completed a certain level of education. SKL is a competency that must be mastered or possessed by students when graduating at a certain level. This means that Elementary School Competency Standards are competencies that must be mastered by students who have graduated from Elementary School. Middle School Competency Standards are competencies that must be mastered by students who have graduated from Middle School. And High School Competency Standards are competencies that must be mastered by students who have graduated from High School. In the National Education System Law, Chapter V concerning Graduate Competency Standards, Article 25 states: a) Graduate competency standards are used as assessment guidelines in determining student graduation from educational units. b) Graduate competency standards as referred to in paragraph (1) include competencies for all subjects or groups of subjects and courses or groups of courses. c) Graduate competencies for language subjects emphasize reading and writing skills that are in accordance with the level of education. d) Graduate competencies as referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) include attitudes, knowledge and skills. From this article, it is known that graduate competencies must include attitudes (affective), knowledge (cognitive) and skills (psychomotor). These competency standards must be a reference for the government in determining graduation standards. However, there is a contradiction between the provisions and implementation in the field. C. Definition of Alumni Alumni are people who have attended or graduated from an educational institution. Alumni as the final product produced by an educational unit, their existence plays an important role in the quality and existence of the educational unit that graduated them. Therefore, strategic efforts in order to pay attention to the existence of alumni must be carried out, because in addition to being the target of the quality of an educational institution, alumni are also a medium of evaluation and a benchmark for the success of an educational unit. Alumni as special citizens and having a strong emotional bond with an educational institution, are expected to play a role in improving the quality of education where they have previously felt the educational services. There are various ways that alumni can provide, for example, contributing ideas to find concepts and ways of working to improve the quality of educational services, providing training or information needed by school residents, morally and financially supporting the needs and efforts of schools in improving quality, providing scholarships to children who excel but are economically disadvantaged, connecting with parties who can make any contribution to the alma mater and so on. Educational development is not only focused on providing educational input factors but must also pay more attention to educational process factors. Good input does not automatically guarantee an increase in quality. In addition to input and process, it also pays attention to the diversity of students, environmental conditions and community participation (including alumni). D. Benefits and Roles of Alumni Alumni as one of the stakeholders of educational institutions are certainly expected to have a role and make a significant contribution to the educational institution. In general, educational institutions not only need financial assistance, but also regarding management assistance, increasing resources including personnel, leadership and organizational systems, communication and cooperation and so on. In short, from various aspects, alumni can contribute. The benefits of alumni for educational institutions are very large for the sustainability of the process in the long term in various ways. Some alumni have strategic positions in government, companies, institutions, organizations, and in the midst of society, therefore alumni have a strategic role. The strategic roles of university alumni include as catalysts, contributors, and iron stock. a. The role of alumni as a catalyst who has a strong emotional connection in society, including: • Alumni and alma mater . Educational institutions as alma maters that have alumni, the synergy of both can be mutualistic symbiosis because they have a very strong relationship with mutual benefit and mutual benefit between the two. • Alumni and prospective students. Educational institutions every year need new students, alumni can indirectly act as sales promotions or someone who can promote their educational institutions to invite prospective new students to be interested in studying at their almamater. • Alumni and society. A good educational institution is the dream of society and becomes the choice to send their children to study at the educational institution, with the hope that they will have the competence to become qualified. Alumni become a strategic focal point for society because they are seen and interact directly with their environment in the community. • Alumni and other institutions. Educational institutions have alumni who are active in various fields in government agencies, companies, institutions, and others. Alumni who are in that position are very strategic and urgent for the development of the educational institution in the future, so the educational institution must be able to work together with alumni through various existing potentials. • Alumni and other alumni. The role of educational institutions towards alumni is very important, including facilitating alumni to meet. In this meeting, alumni have a conducive interaction. For example, there are alumni who have been successful who can help alumni who have not been successful by giving way, opening opportunities, and helping according to their competencies and existing needs, so that the interaction of these alumni has the benefit of helping each other in goodness. A harmonious family is established between junior and senior alumni to become a positive contribution that brings the benefit of success in achieving ideals. b. The role of alumni as contributors, namely material and immaterial contributions to the alma mater, including: 1) Material contribution Namely a contribution in the form of physical things that can be used by educational institutions, such as building construction, purchasing computers, printers, LCDs, cars, motorbikes, and so on. Of course this is without coercion and compulsion, but the contribution is full of sincerity and awareness that is built from within the alumni. However, what is valuable is not the size of the contribution, but the enthusiasm for sharing alumni is very important for the good that continues to flow and will later become charity. 2) Immaterial contribution Namely a contribution in the form of thoughts that can be useful for the development of the educational institution. Such as contributions of thoughts in the form of suggestions and constructive criticism; activities in the form of training, workshops, seminars, book reviews, dialogues, discussions, and scientific studies as well as silaturrahim, congregational prayers, and so on. c. The role of alumni as iron stock That is, educational institutions require human resources for regeneration, then alumni can be recruited according to the disciplines possessed by the educational institution, then it has been facilitated in the selection because they have known the capacity, capability, and quality of alumni as needed, even to be able to be improved and beneficial for the alma mater. The synergy of the strategic roles of alumni and alma mater above will bring good values as long as the input comes from good things, the process is always on the right track, the output will produce something good, the outcome certainly provides good things, and the benefits will certainly produce good things for oneself, family, and society. According to Rifa'i, M (in Student Management (Student Management for Learning Effectiveness) The graduation process is the final activity of student management. Students who are recorded as graduating are called alumni. Graduation is a statement from an educational institution (school) about the completion of the educational program that must be followed by students. When students have graduated, the formal relationship between students and institutions has ended. However, it is expected that the relationship between alumni and schools has been established. The relationship between schools and alumni can be maintained through meetings organized by alumni who are members of the IKA (Alumni Association) and usually carry out an activity called a "reunion".