The education system is central to development in a country. Human resources are developed through education, so the success of development in a country highly dependent on the education system in the country itself.
National development in Indonesia is still developing new to say, that in order to compete with countries that are more developed, implemented an education system that need to be developed, at least take some things in the education system conducted in a developed country which would apply in Indonesia by adjusting the conditions of educators and learners in Indonesia. The most important thing to do is change the way learning becomes a way to learn a modern classic in accordance with the demands of globalization that is capable of producing human resources that are competitive internationally. As the revelation of 'think globally, act locally', which in this case means every person should learn not only from their own countries, but also learn from other countries who have advanced in the world that can later be applied in individual countries, such as what is needed in national development . This is what will need to be applied in a learning system. Each student is expected not only to master the academic skills, but also in life skills. Students are taught to be responsible for what they decide and compete internationally. For that, many challenges confronting us, especially concerning the preparation of quality human resources, namely students and instructors.
Birth of the SBI program (Standard School Iternasional) can not be separated from the quality of education in our country which is still alarming. Through the SBI program, the Ministry of National Education is committed to boost the quality of education in order to compete with other schools in the international arena. Indeed, in the arena of science olympiad international level, many Indonesian students who fetched an amazing achievement. In the event-event Olympic IPhO (International Physic Olympiad), IMO (International Mathematic Olympiad), IChO (International Chemistry Olympiad), IBO (International Biology Olympiad) and other event-event, participants are able manyabet gold medal, silver, perunnggu, and HM (Honorable Mention). However, the number of those who are able to achieve very little achievement. It could be argued, the gap in the ability of Indonesian students are too far away, so only some of them are superior, and even then only in the realm of theory. If made the average ability of Indonesian students, then saw the overall academic achievement.
Compared with other countries, learning achievement of Indonesian students are still far behind. This has been confirmed by the Trends Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS), which examined the ability of children aged 13 years in the field of mathematics and science. In the TIMSS survey of 2003 which followed 46 countries, Indonesian students ranked 34 for math, and 36 for science. Singapore ranks first both mathematics and science. South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan, also dominated the top rankings. While Malaysia's top 10 for math, and 20 for science.
Similar results were also seen in studies conducted by PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), the object of 15-year-old student survey. Three aspects are studied PISA reading, mathematics, and science. In 2003, there were 41 countries surveyed. In the reading and mathematics, Indonesian students ranked 39th, while for science was ranked 38th.
In line with the portrait blurred learning achievement of children of Indonesia, a similar condition also occurs in the human development index ranking (human development index / HDI), which each year released by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). In recent years, Indonesia HDI rank almost on par with Vietnam, a country just beginning to rise up to build their country after years of civil war ravaged. HDI ranking of Indonesia from 2003 to 2007, respectively 112, 111, 110, and 108, while Vietnam 109, 112, 108, and 109. Compare with Malasyia the ranking from 2003 to 2007, respectively 58, 59, 61, and 61.
Similarly, the World Bank study in 2003 stated that, the most important factor determining a country's advantage is the ability to innovate, which contribute to 45%, then 25% of networking, 20% technology capabilities, and the last time is a natural resource that contributes only 10%. In this case it can be concluded that the most significant capability is the ability to innovate. This ability is related to the quality of human resources. Many countries such as Finland and Singapore are poor natural resources, but the quality is very good human resources so as to appear as a country that once counted on the world stage.
Based on these facts the government began meggulirkan SBI program and establish pilot schools with international standards as part of efforts to improve the quality of education in Indonesia to be equal with other countries, resulting in graduates who have high competitiveness in the international arena. Based on this also, the author menysun paper entitled 'The existence of the International Standard School in the System of National Development in Indonesia. "
