O

ct. 23. P. 2

The government’s plan to scrap natural and social sciences from the primary school curriculum has been met with widespread condemnation from educators and education activists who say it will affect the country’s competitiveness in the national arena.

Deputy Education and Culture Minister for Education Musliar Kasim said on Monday that starting next year, primary school students would only study six compulsory subjects — religion, civics, Indonesian language, sports, math, art and culture — in an effort to ease the burden placed upon students.

Musliar also said that the scrapping of the subject of science would allow teachers to teach morality to children.

Your comments:

If the goal is “to ease the burden”, then maybe just teach the students two subjects — hide and seek, then leapfrog.

How do I respond to this “brilliant” idea? I am at a loss for words.

“Well done” minister, or deputy minister, or whatever your job is.

Rio Rivai

I think this plan is irrelevant to the real situation of our country.

I am afraid students will become lazier and they will lack knowledge. I am sure Indonesian education quality will get worse if the government realizes this plan.

Ifani

This means our education is in real trouble right now. The ministry is going to remove English and science from the curriculum of primary schools. Meanwhile, many good schools have a strong emphasis on science and English. What happens to our education?

Syarwan Ahmad

Drop religion and civics, not social and natural sciences. As it stands, the education afforded by our public schools ranks the lowest in Southeast Asia.

Every year, the government promises to improve the curriculum. Sadly, our education system does not improve, rather gets worse.

Henry Manoe

Religion should be outsourced as a subject to the many, many mosques in the nation. No successful country places emphasis on religion over science. Science is more important as a school subject in terms of standard international education. English should be available as an elective course.

Nate