Public–Private School Accountability Gaps as Warning Signals for Local Government Oversight

Andi Rahmat Nizar Hidayat; Aiman Sabar Rezeky

doi:10.26740/jpus.v10n2.p130-145

Authors

Andi Rahmat Nizar Hidayat Universitas Negeri Makassar
Aiman Sabar Rezeky Universitas Negeri Makassar

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26740/jpus.v10n2.p130-145

Keywords:

budget accountability, education governance, governance proxy indicators, public and private schools, school facilities

Abstract

Gaps between public and private schools are rarely examined as signals of how far local government oversight reaches. This study compared budget accountability, facility provision, and teacher qualification indicators between public and private primary and junior secondary schools in Gowa Regency, Indonesia. A quantitative descriptive-comparative design was applied to the aggregate indicators of the 2025 Gowa Education Report, supplemented by distribution data covering 562 schools across eighteen sub-districts. The analysis computed public–private differences for every indicator, converted the widest differences into ratios, and compared two consecutive report editions. Public schools recorded higher values on every budget accountability indicator. The widest ratios appeared in spending on teacher quality improvement at the primary level, at 12.78 against 5.11, and in the online spending of school operational funds through the procurement platform at the junior secondary level, at 18.79 against 8.88. Private schools recorded a higher composite facility index but a wider between-school facility gap, and their share of spending on teacher quality at the primary level declined between the two editions. Certified teaching staff constituted 7.83 percent in private primary schools against 47.60 percent in public ones. These are observed group-level disparities rather than direct measures of supervision, and they may also reflect financing structures, foundation capacity, staffing arrangements, school size, and student composition. Their consistency on indicators tied to government instruments nevertheless makes them warning signals, to be verified against administrative records rather than treated as established findings, that governance may reach schools unevenly across provider types, and it positions routinely published Education Report data as a low-cost screening tool for deciding where supervision and support deserve direct examination.

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