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ulture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan has said that it may be three or four years before a revised curriculum can be implemented nationwide.

Speaking in a discussion on the 2013 curriculum over the weekend, Anies said that the ministry would look at schools'€™ readiness to implement an improved version of the curriculum, emphasizing the need to improve the quality of teachers and to promote better teaching and learning at schools.

'€œWe will continue to analyze schools'€™ readiness [to implement the curriculum nationwide] because the situation is different in different places,'€ he said.

Last week, Anies decided to stop the nationwide implementation of the much-criticized 2013 curriculum, which was first implemented by his predecessor, Mohammad Nuh, and has ordered schools in the country to revert to the 2006 curriculum.

Anies also decided that 6,221 pilot schools that have used the curriculum for the past three semesters could continue using the 2013 curriculum if they want to, while more than 200,000 schools are required to return to the 2006 curriculum.

He said that he understood that his decision was not universally supported.

'€œI am aware that there has been some resistance in the past week, but it is the right time to suspend the curriculum because most schools have applied it for no longer than four months,'€ Anies continued.

He suggested that the 2013 curriculum needed an overhaul, especially regarding the compatibility of the curriculum'€™s objectives with school textbooks.

The 2013 curriculum, which the government implemented after only a one-year trial, has drawn harsh criticism for imposing many changes in the learning process from the previous curriculum.

Anis said further that while improvement of the 2013 curriculum would continue to be implemented in the pilot schools, he would make arrangements for teachers in other schools to learn how to apply the curriculum effectively in the teaching process.

Secretary-general of the Indonesian Teachers Association (FSGI) Retno Listyarti echoed Anies'€™ statement that teachers needed to get intensive training on the teaching and learning process.

She said that during the tenure of the previous minister, most teachers, especially those in remote areas, had not received sufficient training.

'€œIn 2012 we found that 62 percent of elementary school teachers had yet to receive any training at all. I can'€™t imagine that they were suddenly forced to implement the complicated 2013 curriculum,'€ Retno said.

Meanwhile, Teguh Juwarno, a lawmaker who sits on the House of Representatives'€™ Commission X overseeing youth and sports, said that the commission applauded the 2013 curriculum suspension and suggested that Anies should consider applying a very strict supervision of school textbooks.

He added that he was surprised when he found that some third-grade textbooks contained information about the main duty of the government and the House.

'€œWhat is the use of that kind of information for an elementary school student? Children should get textbooks containing information suitable for their age,'€ he said.