AMALAN AUTONOMI DAN AKAUNTABILITI DI SEKOLAH BERAUTONOMI DAN IMPAKNYA TERHADAP KESEDIAAN GURU

Abstract

Autonomy and accountability are two key aspects in the practice of school-based management. This study aims to investigate these aspects in the management of Malaysian autonomous schools and discuss their implications on teacher‟s readiness. Data for this study was collected using a mixed method i.e. survey method using questionnaires as the instrument for collecting quantitative data and interview technique for qualitative data. A total of 788 teachers were randomly selected from 60 autonomous schools has completed the questionnaires. Whereas, for the interview a total of 15 administrators from 6 autonomous schools were selected as interview respondents. The findings showed that the practice of accountability aspect is higher than autonomy aspect in autonomous schools. The MANOVA analysis results based on the school category (High Performance Schools, School Cluster Cohort 1 and 2 ), also confirmed that there is significant differences of autonomy and accountability practices among autonomous schools with different category (Pillai's trace values = .06 , F = 12.96 , p < .01 ) and the Roy ger ( .07 , F = 26.64 , p < .01 ). And, the t-test results showed that the practice of autonomy and accountability in autonomous schools that located in urban area is higher than in rural area. The ttest results also showed that secondary autonomous schools practiced these two aspects higher than primary schools. On top of that, findings from interviews indicated that autonomy and accountability obtained by autonomous schools demand all parties in the schools particularly teachers to be more sensitive to all related aspects in order to accelerate their school‟s excellence. In fact, these two aspects of decentralization practices also pose major implications in terms of improving teachers‟ readiness, either for those who already working or potentially working in autonomous schools. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that autonomy and accountability aspects that practiced in Malaysian autonomous schools demand for a better prepared teachers in order to serve as a professional individual in school.