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Prudent, long-term grand design key to developing education
For a country as vast as Indonesia, teacher training for new curriculum or any adjustment to national policy change are undoubtedly Herculean tasks.
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Elementary school students salute the red-and-white flag during the 79th Independence Day ceremony at the SD Inpres Pasir Dua state elementary school in Jayapura, Papua on Aug. 17, 2024. (Antara/Gusti Tanati)
W
hen I was doing research on the impact of educational policy at the grassroots level in a remote part of West Kalimantan, one respondent teacher gave me a big sigh: “I was just still inhaling, trying to wholly grasp the current curriculum, I didn’t have time yet to exhale, but the curriculum has already changed again!”
His statement reflects frustration among teachers when trying to adapt to national policy changes. Some educationalists argue that there is a tendency for teachers to be against changes possibly due to fear of the future, lack of trust or attachment to the comfort zone.
Nevertheless, researchers Wahidmurni, Susilawati and Abidin have shown that although Indonesian teachers see the need for change, they are seriously and deeply overwhelmed by adjusting to new teaching plans, implementing new learning models and developing new oriented assessments, which take up very much of their time and energy.
And for a country as vast as Indonesia, teacher training for new curricula or any adjustments to national policy are undoubtedly Herculean tasks.
Indeed, change is an inevitable part of life, and as educators we understand the need to embrace it. However, changes happening too often and too fast disrupt everyday learning and this can be very costly not only for teachers, but also for students.
For example, when the government decided to replace the national curriculum, Kurikulum 13, with a simpler version to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools welcomed this cautiously but warmly. It was regarded as the correct decision as teachers needed sufficient opportunities to deal with the learning loss by doing remedial work for students with the curriculum that they were already familiar with.
Nevertheless, things became frantic when out of the blue the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry replaced it all together with brand-new Kurikulum Merdeka (Independent Curriculum).
