In spite of challenging policy towards the realization of nine years basic education, education in Indonesia hasbeen suffering of low quality and inefficiency in administration. There is often a large gap between policies of thecentral government and the real situation of schools. Because of unfair distribution, rural schools are facing shortageof teachers. 300f instructional time is estimated to be lost because of absenteeism of teachers. The governmentintended to distribute one textbook for all students in basic education, but schools did not obtain appropriate numberof textbooks.The World Bank report suggests decentralization to improve the situation, based on the idea that lower-level gov-ernments, schools and communities will do better in solving the existing problems than the higher-level govern-ments, if they are given appropriate responsibility and funding. The author found an example that a community,through a contract system called swakelola, could build a school building of better quality than private contractorsselected by the provincial government. In an international cooperation project, the project office succeeded to over-come the problem of unreliable and inefficient government by clear definition of responsibility of each subjectincluding schools, together with due account system.To bring the real change in education, especially to provide poor children in rural areas with basic education,international cooperation agencies have to work together with the government of Indonesia to improve the adminis-tration system.