Plans for New Curriculum Have Led To Confusion, Lack of Confidence

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Plans for New Curriculum Have Led To Confusion, Lack of Confidence
Weilin Han & Yohanes Sulaiman | November 29, 2012

The upcoming changes in Indonesia’s educational curriculum have become a hot topic among many educators, especially since September, when Deputy Education and Culture Minister Musliar Kaslim first mentioned the changes.

Many eyebrows were raised when he suggested that science and social science would no longer be taught as independent subjects in elementary school.

Such statements, not surprisingly, generated a lot of controversy. People were asking how children would be expected to learn science. Would science be integrated into civics and religion? Or would everything be put under Indonesian language lessons?

Some are approving the changes, arguing that the student’s current workload is too heavy. Supporters of the changes argue that the new curriculum would be “child-centered,” allowing for the possibilities of children to take responsibility in their own learning through “discovery and inquiry.”

At the same time, however, there are legitimate questions to be asked, notably whether the Ministry of Education and Culture has thought carefully about the new curriculum.

We were recently made aware of an invitation, dated Nov. 13, that was sent to several people who would form a team to work on the new curriculum from Nov. 19 to 22. Not many people knew about the invitation. Those who did were impressed at the team’s amazing display of superior ability that would allow it to create a new curriculum in four days.

Sarcasm aside, there are some serious questions to be asked.

While it is possible to have a nice vacation in Bali or Singapore for four days and it is also possible to attend several workshops in a row and get “certificates of achievement,” is it possible to produce a good and workable national education curriculum in such a short time?

When questions are asked, however, especially to people in the upper rungs of bureaucracy, they seem to compete with each other in issuing more and more confusing statements and explanations of what is in the new curriculum.

Science, which was supposed to be integrated with other subjects, turned out to be some sort of “bridge” that united subjects. All middle school teachers must use computers in their teaching, which ignores the simple fact that not every school in Indonesia can afford computers for a variety of reasons — ranging from the lack of funds, to corruption. In some cases, they can’t even use computers due to the lack of electricity.

There is also a lot of technical jargon in the curriculum, such as “portfolio assessment,” “cooperative and collaborative learning” and “integrated approach.”

While teachers may understand the meaning of these terms, unfortunately it is very difficult for many of them to either implement what is meant or to translate it into something practical, especially when one considers the need to standardize everything to meet the requirements of the test-obsessed bureaucrats. One can only pity the teachers who would have to be retrained and teach the entire thing to students.

More importantly, there are questions about whether the ministry has done a thorough and stringent “test run” regarding the feasibility of the curriculum. According to its official website, the Ministry of Education launched the first “public test” in Manado last Saturday, even though on closer examination, the “public test” in reality was simply a seminar with questions and answers. The draft itself was never made public. It was merely a PowerPoint presentation of the draft circulated among several educators.

Therefore, skeptics can be forgiven for wondering out loud if the new curriculum is another train wreck in the making, considering all the difficulties in getting information about the procedure of the drafting and testing of the new curriculum. If it is supposed to accommodate the concerns of educators and the public in general, shouldn’t people be allowed to ask for a copy of the draft so they can have enough time to study it and draw some sort of conclusion?

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the word “curriculum” has been misused as a buzzword. When Indonesia faced severe natural disasters some time ago, a “natural disaster management curriculum” was made. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the ministry were also said to have released the joint anti-corruption curriculum. Strangely, it is impossible to find it on their official websites. It seems only a couple of people were in the know, while the rest were left confused and frustrated.

In spite of all the confusion, however, the Ministry of Education and Culture has managed to do one thing successfully: create public distrust of its intentions. Even though it’s possible — and we surely hope so — that the new curriculum will be the greatest thing since sliced bread, thanks to this lack of transparency in drafting the curriculum, many people have already decided to distrust it.

A final note. The word “curriculum” is derived from the Latin word meaning “horse racing track,” where there is a beginning, an end, and a path from the start to the end. But in essence, it should be a compass, a guide to achieve a purpose that allows one to follow without getting in the way.

The national education curriculum is supposed to help the next generation prepare for life and help build a better future for the nation. Sadly, however, after spending Rp 171 billion ($18 million) in the haste to launch and implement the new curriculum, the ministry seems to have forgotten the meaning of curriculum.

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hansardwidrick

10:03am Nov 29, 2012

Our bureaucrats playing around with Indonesian children's future. Great news indeed. Children are not lab rats to test their theories!

Pelan2

11:08am Nov 29, 2012

Weilin & Yohanes - spot on - with the quality of the ministries and those working there, being as they are, distrust will always be the first thing popping up, unfortunately. Another window dressing from Muhd. Nuh, to try to show SBY that he is actually doing something, never mind the substance and the end result..

Yohanes-Sulaiman

1:26pm Nov 30, 2012

Thanks to both of you for your comments. It is a shame to see these bureaucrats simply toying with children's education. We won't actually write this oped, had we convinced that they were taking our children's education seriously. We also heard some reports that a book publisher actually had received a draft of the curriculum as far back as September, making this so-called "asking for public input" to be a terrible joke. We, however, don't put it there in our op-ed due to the lack of concrete data. Still, that is very disturbing and further undermine the credibility of this curriculum.

Realist

7:24pm Nov 30, 2012

Oh man! Anyway a basic curriculum for Indonesia should have at least the following to be somewhat effective: Bahasa Indonesia, Math, Science, Social Sciences, Civics, and Sports. Everything else should just be electives! Just my two cents on this matter!

Roland

8:17pm Nov 30, 2012

What an eye opener this article is - mostly as actually suspected. Yohanes’ additional comment in regards of the new and “improved” curriculum basically already fixed far before it was officially announced (who doesn't remember the remarks of one of the lawmakers just a week or so before the official statement of the education ministry was distributed) is one of those indicators.



Oh, there are forces at play which do play havoc with the future of our children and in the long term with the future of Indonesia.



Strange though, most countries I know (even the former east bloc) are very proud to make their education showpieces for the world to see; and while it might have an egoistic background from politicians or governments it still moves the country ahead. Mahfud might have just been correct when he said that the government is infiltrated by mafia - it's just not drug mafia but something far more sinister - certain key ministerial posts are occupied by person with a rather suspicious background. Please let it be 2014 soon and certain parties removed from governing posts.