The Indonesia’s education has been facing a number of problems. One of them is the low quality of the education. The study conducted by International Educational Achievement Organization (IEA), for example, shows that the reading ability of the Indonesian elementary school students is very low. Indonesia is in the 38th level out of 39 countries. In SMP level, Indonesia is in number 39 out of 42 countries for the students’ ability in mathematics and in number 40 for the students’ ability in natural science (Syafarudin, 2002).

Another study also shows the low quality of the education in Indonesia. The
result of a survey conducted by Political and Economic Risk Consultant (PERC) in
2001 reveals that the quality of education in Indonesia is in the 12th position out of 12
Asian countries (The Jakarta Post, 19th of July 2001).

Besides the very low quality of the education, Indonesian people have low
competitiveness in the world. According to the data reported by The World Economic
Forum in 2000, Indonesia is in the 37th position out of 57 countries. It also reports
that Indonesia is only a follower in the technology among 53 countries in the world
(Syafarudin, 2002).

One of the causes of this is the low quality of the schools’ graduates in the
mastery of science and technology. It is due to their limited knowledge on the
English written learning sources. Besides, they cannot optimize the technology based
learning sources to support their learning process.

As one of the solutions to the problems, the government has imposed a policy
to improve the students’ quality in the mastery of science and technology by
establishing Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional (SBI) in SD, SMP, SMA, and SMK.
Therefore, SBI, among other programs, is established to improve the Indonesia’s
education quality in terms of the students’ mastery of English, math, natural science,
and ICT in order that they have competitiveness in the global world.

describe the implementation of SMP-SBI in SMPN 1 Kota Mojokerto. It is expected that the paper will be useful for teachers, teacher students, and school administrators who are interested in implementing SMP-SBI in their schools.

SMP-SBI is a national junior high school that implements both the national
curriculum based on Standar Nasional Pendidikan (SNP) and the international
standardized curriculum. The international standardized curriculum is a curriculum
prepared by Direktorat Pembinaan SMP Direktorat Jenderal Manajemen Pendidikan
to meet with the international requirements. Therefore, the graduates will be able to
compete in the international world in the global era of science and technology
(Soejono, 2007).

The establishment of SBI is based on UU No. 20 year 2003 article 50 (3) about the national education system. The article states that the central government and/or a local government hold at least one unit of education at all levels to be improved as an international standardized unit of education (UU Sisdiknas).

Hence, each Regent and Mayor have appointed (a) school/s in their regency or
town (city) as a pilot project to be improved as (an) international standardized
school/s since 2006. This year, there are already 100 international standardized junior
high schools all over Indonesia officially appointed by Dirjen Mandikdasmen
Direktorat Pengembangan SMP. In East Java alone, there are 24 SMP-SBI (Widiarto,
2007).

A school can be appointed an international standardized school (SBI) if it
complies with the requirements. First, it is considered the best school in town (city)
which has already implemented national standardized school (SSN) or has already
implemented a bilingual program. Second, a school is successful in implementing
SSN program. It is shown by the students’ achievement in a level of a town (city),
province, country, and international world. Besides, the students’ achievement in the
nationwide Test (UN) is considered important. To be selected, the students’ average
score of UN should be at least 8.0 for English, Math, and Bahasa Indonesia. The UN
passing percentage of the students is also taken into account. A school that has met
the requirements will be given SK by Direktorat Jenderal Manajemen Pendidikan

Dasar Dan Menengah Departemen Pendidikan Indonesia. The appointed school,
however, will be accredited by Badan Akreditasi Sekolah Nasional (BASN) and
Badan Akreditasi Sekolah Internasional (BASI) later (Kompas, 26th of April 2007).

In SMP-SBI, English is used as the instructional language for the teaching and
learning of mathematics, natural science, and information and communication
technology. In addition, the process of teaching and learning is based on information
and communication technology (ICT). Accordingly, the students of SBI classroom
are expected to master the ICT so that they can optimally make use of internet as a
source of learning.

The graduates of SBI schools will have two advantages. First, they will hold
national and international diploma. Second, they can continue their study in
Indonesia or abroad.

To gather the data about the implementation of SBI program in SMPN 1 Kota
Mojokerto, a number of instruments, i.e. questionnaire, interview, and observation
were employed. Questionnaire was used to obtain the data concerning with the
school, teachers, and the students’ preparation. Interview was conducted with the
teacher responsible for the school curriculum to crosscheck the data obtained from
the questionnaire. Interview was also carried out with some SBI students’ parents to
find out their opinion about the program. Observation was done to observe the
teachers conducting the teaching and learning process in the classroom and the
facilities prepared by the school for the SBI class. The data obtained from the official
documents are employed to support the data obtained from questionnaire, interview,
and observation.