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Curriculum overhaul saves educational costs: Minister
Despite potential chaos in the education system following his recent decision to drop the much-criticized 2013 national curriculum, Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan said that such a move was needed to help parents and students avoid the long-term impact of education mismanagement
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D
espite potential chaos in the education system following his recent decision to drop the much-criticized 2013 national curriculum, Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan said that such a move was needed to help parents and students avoid the long-term impact of education mismanagement.
Speaking to reporters at the Presidential Palace, Anies said many problems related to the 2013 curriculum were rooted in the absence of a thorough review of its feasibility prior to implementation.
"[The curriculum] will continue to be a problem if we do nothing about it," he said.
"There will also be more problems if we scrap it, but at least, we can cut [the educational costs] since our students will need to pay even higher costs if we stick with this curriculum."
The 2013 curriculum, first implemented by Anies' predecessor, Mohammad Nuh, has drawn harsh criticism for creating confusion among students, parents and teachers, who have complained about the extra work it demanded.
While imposing many changes in the learning process from the previous curriculum, the government implemented it after only a one-year trial.
A recent government-sanctioned review of the 2013 curriculum recommended that the ministry scrap the curriculum and order schools in the country to revert to the 2006 curriculum.
The ministry also suggested that the 2013 curriculum needed a tremendous amount of improvement, especially concerning the compatibility of the curriculum's objectives with school textbooks.
Last week, Anies said that, starting next semester, 6,221 out of the country's 208,000 schools would be pilot schools for the improved version of the curriculum and they should get ready for intensive guidance from the ministry.
Teachers at the 6,221 schools, he added, would also receive intensive training since they would be the backbone of the curriculum's implementation.
'However, if some of the schools aren't ready yet, we will be lenient and they can stick to the 2006 curriculum,' he said. (nfo)(++++)
