Global lessons from the 2026 GEM report for Indonesia's Zonasi access policy

Muhammad Fikri Darmawan; Dihliza Basya; Natasya Wafiqotul Ilmiyah

doi:10.64014/jik.v23i4.773

Abstract

The 2026 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, Access and Equity: Countdown to 2030, and its companion SDG 4 Scorecard report that 273 million children and youth remain out of school and that completion-rate growth has been uneven across countries, shaped less by resource levels than by policy coherence and sustained commitment to equity. This study examines what these findings imply for zonasi (school zoning), Indonesia's national education policy on public-school admission. Using descriptive-comparative document analysis of secondary sources, it reviews the 2026 GEM Report, the SDG 4 Scorecard, the UNESCO World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), and peer-reviewed studies on education-access policy in Indonesia, East Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Pakistan. The results show that within-country gaps of up to 70 percentage points by household wealth and 62 points by rural-urban location persist where formal access mechanisms exist, and that only about one in ten countries combines SDG 4 target-setting with equity-focused financing. Decentralization, targeted financing, and infrastructure investment narrow these gaps only under specific complementary conditions. Zonasi therefore functions as a formal access instrument whose equity effect depends on facility distribution, assessment reliability, admission-pathway coherence, and subsidy targeting. The study derives contextual policy recommendations for Indonesia ahead of 2030.

Abstrak

Laporan Global Education Monitoring (GEM) 2026, Access and Equity: Countdown to 2030, beserta SDG 4 Scorecard 2026 mencatat bahwa 273 juta anak dan remaja masih belum bersekolah dan bahwa pertumbuhan angka penyelesaian pendidikan yang timpang antarnegara lebih ditentukan oleh koherensi kebijakan dan komitmen jangka panjang terhadap pemerataan daripada oleh tingkat sumber daya. Penelitian ini mengkaji implikasi temuan tersebut bagi zonasi, yakni kebijakan pendidikan nasional Indonesia dalam penerimaan peserta didik di sekolah negeri. Dengan analisis dokumen deskriptif-komparatif terhadap sumber sekunder, penelitian ini menelaah Laporan GEM 2026, SDG 4 Scorecard, UNESCO World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), serta studi ilmiah tentang kebijakan akses pendidikan di Indonesia, Afrika Timur, Afrika Sub-Sahara, dan Pakistan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa kesenjangan di dalam negara hingga 70 poin persentase berdasarkan kesejahteraan rumah tangga dan 62 poin berdasarkan lokasi desa-kota tetap bertahan meskipun mekanisme akses formal tersedia, dan hanya sekitar satu dari sepuluh negara yang memadukan penetapan target SDG 4 dengan pembiayaan yang berorientasi pada pemerataan. Desentralisasi, pembiayaan terarah, dan investasi infrastruktur hanya akan mempersempit kesenjangan jika disertai dengan kondisi pendukung tertentu. Zonasi merupakan instrumen akses formal yang dampaknya terhadap pemerataan bergantung pada sebaran fasilitas, keandalan asesmen, koherensi jalur penerimaan, dan ketepatan sasaran subsidi. Penelitian ini merumuskan rekomendasi kebijakan yang kontekstual bagi Indonesia menjelang tahun 2030.

Kata Kunci: desentralisasi pendidikan; kebijakan pendidikan komparatif; pemerataan pendidikan; zonasi sekolah

Keywords:

comparative education policy education decentralization educational equity school zoning

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