The collapse of democratic principles in implementing school-based management in Islamic elementary schools during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, abnormal conditions potentially lessened community partnerships in school-based management (SBM), such as democratic erosion at the decision-making or policy-making levels at school. To address these issues, this study aimed at investigating the implementation of SBM at an Islamic elementary school in Indonesia. In this study, a mixed-method research design was used, with 510 participants surveyed for quantitative data and 50 participants interviewed for qualitative data. During the pandemic, it was discovered that SBM did not perform as expected. Moreover, school principals had to make a majority of important decisions regarding the organization of school activities. They were also in charge of putting decisions and policies into action. These findings indicate that democratic principles were violated in the implementation of SBM during the pandemic. In other words, the principals and school committee partnership did not run well since the headmaster dominated the policy making on any activities without considering the voice of the school committee. Through these findings, it can be recommended that the government conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of SBM at the Islamic school level during the pandemic, and bring together principals and school committees in intense joint meetings.