TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Teachers see new curriculum as total mess

The hurried implementation of the 2013 curriculum has created confusion among students, parents and teachers who complained about the burden of extra work it imposes for little reward

Apriadi Gunawan and Syamsul Huda M. Suhari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Medan/Gorontalo
Wed, September 3, 2014

Share This Article

Change Size

Teachers see new curriculum as total mess

T

he hurried implementation of the 2013 curriculum has created confusion among students, parents and teachers who complained about the burden of extra work it imposes for little reward.

The teachers'€™ union said that most teachers have failed to conduct an effective learning process in their classes because they themselves had not received clear guidelines from the Education and Culture Ministry.

Federation for Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI) secretary-general Retno Listyarti said the ministry should have given priority to improving the skills of teachers before rolling out the new curriculum in July.

'€œNo matter how good the curriculum is, if the infrastructure and the teachers are not ready then it becomes useless,'€ she said.

Parents in some regions have complained that after two months teachers remained clueless on how to teach their students according to the guidelines set by the new curriculum.

The mother of an elementary school student in Medan, North Sumatra, Arniwati Azhar, complained that teachers at her daughter'€™s school remained at the dark about how the new curriculum should be implemented.

'€œIf teachers themselves have no clue about how to teach using the new curriculum, how can you expect the parents to understand it?'€ she said on Tuesday.

In many cities, parents and teachers have also complained about logistical problems in the implementation of the new curriculum.

Yahya Walangadi, the headmaster of an elementary school in Bone Bolango, Gorontalo, said that teachers at his school had to download the necessary textbooks from the ministry'€™s website, bse.kemdikbud.go.id.

Yahya also complained that the ministry only gave limited access to teacher training. '€œThey only gave us one seat for the training. We insisted on sending two teachers because we feel that the training is important, we feel that there is a need for more teachers to participate in the training.'€

Meanwhile, Hotma Prawoto Sulistyadi, the parent of a high school student in Yogyakarta, complained that the new curriculum added extra hours in class for his two sons.

'€œThe extra hours can bring harm to students, especially elementary school and junior high school students. They can get too tired and this will in turn affect their character development,'€ said Hotma.

Under the 2013 curriculum, elementary and high school students spend an extra two hours in class, while junior high students remain an additional four hours.

'€œChildren need more time to develop their interests, such as in arts and sports, so that they can have balanced growth,'€ Hotma said.

Seto Mulyadi, a child psychologist, had earlier said that the 2013 curriculum only focused on developing the cognitive aspects of students.

'€œIt has the potential of turning our students into psychopaths in the future,'€ he said.

Deputy Education and Culture Minister Musliar Kasim said that the ministry had done its best to prepare the new curriculum and that the logistical challenges the curriculum now posed were beyond its control.

'€œThe country is very large, so we can'€™t ship the books to all locations, but we have sent compact discs containing soft copies of the textbooks.'€

Musliar said he could understand if teachers were not ready for the new curriculum. '€œIt is good if they can even understand only 80 percent of the materials. It is still better than no training at all,'€ he said. (ask)

{

Your Opinion Counts

Your thoughts matter - share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.