ABSTRACT

Hamzah Hippy, A Strategic Plan of Information and Communication Technology-(ICT)-based Educational Development in the Middle Vocational Schools (supervised by Slamet Trisutomo and Rhiza S. Sadjad).

This is a case study concerning the development of the middle vocational schools (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan, SMK) in the city of Gorontalo, INDONESIA. Focusing on the information and communication technology (ICT) facilities in 5 (five) public SMKs and a private SMK, the study has formulated a strategic plan to develop an ICT-based education system for the schools.

The author has conducted an extensive survey to explore the condition of ICT facilities in those schools. The study has shown all important factors affecting the optimization of the ICT-based educational system development and deriving from it a strategic plan. 

The result of this study categorizes the SMKs into 3 (three) categories in terms of their condition of ICT facilities, namely (1) excellent condition, (2) fairly good condition, for not having a website and a digital animation-based learning facility, and (3) inferior condition, with very minimum ICT facility. Three SMKs (SMKN 1, 2 and 3) are considered excellent, and the other two are in fairly good condition (SMKN 4) and in inferior condition (SMK Pelita Bangsa) respectively. External factors including the general ICT users in the city of Gorontalo, ICT infrastructure and the Internet providers, and internal factors such as the curriculum, school organization, the city bureaucracy and budget allocation, are  significantly influential to the development of an ICT-based educational system for the SMKs.

A strategic plan has been derived in this study consisting 3 (three) educational development strategic plans for each category of the SMK's condition of ICT facilities. The city's demand of improving its quality in trading and services is also put into consideration.