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Explainer: Learning loss prompts government to introduce ‘Merdeka’ curriculum
As Indonesia reels from learning loss, the government is giving schools the option to choose a curriculum for the new academic year, including the much-vaunted Merdeka curriculum.
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Students return to learning inside a classroom at Jakarta Intercultural School in April 2021. The school implemented blended learning under instruction from the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry and the Jakarta Education Agency.
T
he government has recently introduced a new curriculum option to modernize Indonesia’s education system, dubbed the Merdeka (Freedom) curriculum. It will be applicable from this year for early childhood education institutions all the way up to senior high schools (SMA).
It has been touted as the answer to the nationwide trend of learning loss – the loss of knowledge and skills that students experience when they are not in school.
Authorities believe the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated this problem. Since schools were forced to shutter soon after Indonesia reported its first infection in March 2020, teachers and students alike have struggled with the sudden transition to distance education.
Despite a constitutional mandate of allocating 20 percent of the state budget for education, longstanding obstacles to online learning, such as unequal access to the internet and devices, as well low levels of digital literacy among teachers, have continued to rear their heads time and time again.
A survey by the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry, which polled some 3,300 students in April 2020, showed that the pandemic had resulted in an estimated setback of six months for acquiring literacy skills and five months for numeracy skills.
“These numbers are just an average; we can only imagine that schools in more remote areas must have a learning loss of eight to 10 months. This is a very significant setback,” said Minister Nadiem Makarim at a promotional event for the new curriculum on Feb. 11.
A World Bank study published last year revealed that students worldwide could experience between 0.9 and 1.2 years of learning loss from the one-and-a-half-year school closures, which could cost each student US$408 to $578 (Rp5.8 million to Rp8.3 million) in future annual earnings.
