Hubungan Karakteristik Pegawai Dinas Sosial di Kalimantan Selatan dengan Kebutuhan Latihan dalam Penyuluhan Sosial

Abstract

Social extension training to improve the competence of civil servants at the social affair must be designed according to the training needs and characteristics of the related employees. The research objectives were first to present the distribution of civil servants at the social affair in terms of their characteristics under observation; second, formulate in ranks the needs of civil servants for training on social extension; then determine the degree of agreement among the civil servants on a number of characteristics in the social extension training; and finally set up a valid and reliable instrument to determine the needs of social extension training. This study was a descriptive research to describe the characteristic variable and training variable and examine the relationship between both variables. The smallest unit of observation was the Civil Servants at the Social Affair in South Kalimantan, with the population of 502 people. A simple random sampling was applied to obtain 228 people as the samples. Frequency distribution was used to analyze the data, ranking of scores and Kendall W’s concordance to rank the training needs, Kendall W’s concordance and Kendall’s correlation rank t to determine the degree of agreement among the civil servants on some characteristics of training needs, Cronbach’s Alpha and variant analysis to measure the reliability of the instrument in determining the training needs. The research obtained the following results. First, the female civil servants at the Social Affair in South Kalimantan were fewer in number and had more limited positions and roles than male employees in the organizational structure. Nearly half of the employees were of inadequate education for extension activities. There was a lack of employees with formal education on social welfare and extension. Slightly over one third had a low working motivation. One third had low income. A little over half of the civil servants were in the middle-to-lower social status. Second, the training needs from the first to the third ranks were the understanding of cultural differences, leadership, and extension principles. Next, based on the level and fields of formal education, there was a potential difference in the training needs. Finally, the four types of instruments used in the research were valid and reliable for the measurement of the needs in social extension training. The research gives the following recommendations. First, civil servants development should be conducted by improving the appreciation and recognition system. It is also urgently necessary to recruit functional officials for social extension. Second, the role of training should be improved to create polyvalent social extension. Further, it is essential to design a social extension training to accommodate the differences in training needs by separating extension materials into basic and optional categories. Finally, in choosing one of the four instruments which are relatively equal in validity and reliability in the need analysis of social extension training, it is important to consider the characteristics of intended training needs.

Posisi penyuluhan dan penyuluh sosial dalam penyelenggaraan kesejahteraan sosial adalah penting. Undang-Undang Nomor 11 Tahun 2009 tentang Kesejahteraan Sosial menyatakan bahwa penyuluh sosial bersama dengan pekerja sosial profesional, tenaga kesejahteraan sosial, dan relawan sosial adalah sumber daya manusia dalam penyelenggaraan kesejahteraan sosial. Peran penyuluh sosial dalam posisi tersebut adalah menyelenggarakan pendidikan non formal untuk mengubah perilaku penyandang masalah kesejahteraan sosial (PMKS) agar tahu, mau, dan mampu melakukan proses pemecahan masalah, menggali dan memanfaatkan kesempatan, peluang, serta sumber daya diri dan lingkungan untuk memenuhi kebutuhan. Sasaran perubahan juga meliputi unsur pemerintah, dunia usaha, dan masyarakat agar tahu, mau, dan mampu melakukan rehabilitasi sosial, perlindungan sosial, pemberdayaan sosial, dan jaminan sosial. Berdasarkan pada posisi dan peran tersebut, penyuluhan sosial harus diartikan dan dilakukan sebagai proses perubahan perilaku melalui pendidikan non formal untuk mewujudkan kondisi warga negara yang terpenuhi kebutuhan material, spiritual, dan sosial yang layak sesuai harkat dan martabat manusia. Tantangan yang dihadapi penyuluhan dan penyuluh sosial adalah jumlah PMKS yang besar, kerumitan dalam penanganan, munculnya masalah baru, serta terbatasnya jumlah dan sebaran Pejabat Fungsional Penyuluh Sosial. Keterbatasan tersebut secara langsung menyebabkan penyuluhan sosial di daerah dilakukan oleh pegawai Dinas Sosial non Pejabat Fungsional Penyuluh Sosial. Pengamatan pada praktik penyuluhan yang dilakukan pegawai tersebut menunjukkan terdapat persepsi yang kurang tepat pada penyuluhan dan kompetensi menyuluh yang lemah, sehingga penyuluhan cenderung dilakukan sebagai proses informatif semata yang sulit untuk mengubah perilaku sasaran penyuluhan.