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span class="inline inline-left">The government’s plan to launch a new national curriculum in 2013 has met unlikely opponents: confused teachers who doubt that they are ready for the upcoming learning revolution.

A major concern among many teachers is the government’s poor preparation, pointing out they have had received less than a year’s familiarization and public tests, let alone proper teacher training.

Rahmadi, headmaster at the Gandaria 7 state elementary school in Jakarta, said that as of mid-March, he had not received any information relating to the implementation of the new curriculum.

“We received a brief introduction [from the ministry] about the new curriculum some time ago, but that was it. I heard that the central [government] is still working on the upcoming curriculum,” Rahmadi told The Jakarta Post recently.

In its pursuit to rejuvenate the educational system, the government has prepared the so-called Curriculum 2013, which it claims will encourage creative thinking. Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh said the new curriculum was expected to replace the dense learning materials, which are perceived as being the cause of low performances by Indonesian students compared with other countries.

The new curriculum, which is scheduled to be tested at the start of the school year in June, will eliminate natural and social sciences (locally known as IPA and IPS, respectively) for first-graders. Material from the two subjects will be presented instead in mathematics, Indonesian language and citizenship (PKN) classes.

In the first year of implementation, the ministry plans to pilot the curriculum in at least 30 percent of the country’s total 148,000 elementary schools. It has also announced a national training for teachers in May and June. Initially, the government aims to have 40,000 national instructors to train 350,000 master teachers across the country.

Considering that just four months remain before the implementation of the pilot scheme, Rahmadi said that nothing short of a miracle was needed for the government’s plan to be successful.

“Most elementary schools in the country still have a lot of middle-aged teachers, namely teachers who are about to retire. These teachers are finding it difficult to absorb new ideas, including what the new curriculum has to offer, compared with younger ones.

“This will be one of the main challenges in successfully implementing the curriculum,” he said.

Another school principal and teacher, Abdul Yakub from the An-Nisa Islamic elementary school in Bekasi, said confusion would reign, as such a change to the curriculum was unprecedented.

“Indonesian language has a different teaching process to those used in natural and social sciences. Without proper training for teachers, it will make things worse for students,” he said.

Education observer Itje Chodidjah from Bandung’s Indonesian Education University (UPI) said that many Indonesian teachers were not well-placed to improve their teaching skills.

“According to education ministry data, about 70 percent of the 1.7 million primary school teachers are considered unqualified. The causes vary from low educational standards to being older,” said Itje, referring to those teachers who only possess a Diploma 1 degree, the equivalent to one year’s study in college.

“I have a copy of the [new curriculum’s] guidance book for teachers, and I see that there is a chapter about houses that is supposed to be delivered in 18 sessions, while the material fills only a few pages.

“I can only wonder how those teachers will fill the 18 sessions with such limited material,” Itje said, referring to the fact that most Indonesian teachers were not accustomed to creative learning. She remained unconvinced that the national training would address this issue.

An elementary school teacher in East Jakarta, Ujang, said that what he and his colleagues most needed was a comprehensive training for the current curriculum.

“The key to delivering better education in Indonesia, no matter what form the curriculum takes, is good teachers. We need the government to pay more attention to us in terms of upgrading our skills,” he said.

Ujang said he felt the government was fooling around with teachers by launching a curriculum that did not consider teachers’ capabilities.

“If the government keeps on behaving like this, even 1,000 changes to the curriculum won’t resolve the problems in Indonesian education,” he said, adding that he had asked the government to postpone the implementation of the new curriculum.

Rohmani, a teacher at an Islamic primary school (madrasah ibtidaiyah) in South Jakarta, said that he had received very little training from the government.

“Young teachers may quickly absorb the material during training and try to find out more about it outside training sessions. However, the older ones will find it hard to catch up,” he added.