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urricula need updating in this globalized era. In 2013, the Indonesian government designed and developed a new curriculum in line with 21st century learning skills. The 2013 curriculum has pros and cons. Some people advocate it, since it fosters learners'€™ affective and psychomotor skills.

Likewise, the 2013 curriculum puts emphasis on learners'€™ creativity and morality. Nevertheless, when the government put this curriculum into practice, there were some problems that needed handling. Despite the strengths of the new curriculum, the government needs to take into account some likely problems in its implementation.

One of the most likely problems is that teachers mostly have no idea how to present materials with this new curriculum. Only a chosen few teachers can undergo training for it due to the frantic preparation.

Although Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh has said that school teachers that had been trained on the new curriculum and were ready to implement it, Itje Chodidjah, spokeswoman for the Education Reform Coalition, said on Feb. 8 that most teachers do not fully understand the curriculum'€™s goals and lack training on how they should present the material to their students. Therefore, the government should give a chance to school teachers to undergo intensive training.

Moreover, the government still requires students to take the national exam in this new curriculum. It is deniable that process is more important than result. Therefore, in relation to this new curriculum, students are obliged to develop their creativity. For instance, they should do a class project, learn collaboratively, etc.

As the secretary of the ministry'€™s research and development center, Hendarman, told reporters on July 16, 2013 that the implementation of the new curriculum would make students play a more active role in class and that they were expected to meet three competency standards related to behavior, morality and knowledge. At the same time, students also need to focus on the national exam.

Hartini Nara, in a curriculum seminar in 2013, also regretted that students still needed to take national exams in the new curriculum. She believed that the national exams killed teachers'€™ creativity since they were expected to make sure that their students got good grades. It is likely to fail to reach its goal if students are hardly ever drilled in solving the problems of the national exams.

The government needs to develop teachers'€™ creativity. It is one of the keys to achieving success with the 2013 curriculum. No matter how sophisticated the curriculum is, it will prove worthless if teachers don'€™t brush up on their skills and creativity and improve their competence in teaching (Prof. Arief Rachman, 2013). Likewise, education observer Itje from Bandung'€™s Indonesia University of Education (UPI) on March 24, 2013 said that many Indonesian teachers were not well-placed to improve their teaching skills.

Therefore, the government should focus on improving teachers'€™ skills. Otherwise, failure to achieve the goals is inevitable.

Ronaldi
Jakarta