Garuda Indonesia Flagship High School as Educational Reform: A Critical Analysis of Meritocracy, Inclusivity, and Social Justice

Ikrom Shaliadi

doi:10.35445/alishlah.v18i2.9726

Garuda Indonesia Flagship High School as Educational Reform: A Critical Analysis of Meritocracy, Inclusivity, and Social Justice

Ikrom Shaliadi

Abstract

The Garuda Indonesia Flagship High School (SUGI) initiative represents a new educational reform designed to promote scientific excellence while expanding access to quality education for students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The coexistence of merit-based selection and affirmative access mechanisms raises important questions regarding how contemporary educational policy negotiates the competing demands of excellence, inclusion, and social justice. This study aims to critically examine the policy design and policy discourse underpinning the SUGI initiative through the perspectives of meritocracy, symbolic elitism, and educational justice. A qualitative document-based research design was employed using Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA) integrated with the Policy Cycle Framework. The analysis drew upon official policy documents, government publications, historical records concerning RSBI/SBI, national media reports, and relevant scholarly literature published between 2012 and 2025. Data were analyzed through open coding, axial coding, thematic interpretation, and critical discourse analysis. The findings identify three interconnected policy discourses: inclusive meritocracy, symbolic elitism, and conditional affirmation. While SUGI demonstrates a stronger commitment to affirmative educational support than previous excellence-oriented initiatives by providing scholarships, boarding facilities, and comprehensive assistance for disadvantaged students, access remains dependent upon highly selective merit-based criteria, resulting in a model of conditional meritocratic inclusion. These findings suggest that contemporary educational reform in Indonesia seeks to reconcile educational excellence, global competitiveness, and social justice through hybrid policy narratives rather than replacing meritocratic principles. The study contributes to the literature on educational policy by advancing a critical understanding of how inclusion and excellence are simultaneously constructed within state-sponsored educational reform, while providing a conceptual basis for future empirical studies examining policy implementation and educational outcomes.

Keywords

critical policy discourse analysis; educational reform; inclusive meritocracy; social justice; SMA Unggul Garuda Indonesia

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.35445/alishlah.v18i2.9726