In the past few months, Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh has been busy touring the country to explain to people the need to have a new curriculum, specifically the Curriculum 2013. He has had to do much explaining because of the frequent and increasingly vocal opposition to the said curriculum, from all over the country. Meanwhile, Nuh is insisting his new creation must go ahead. "Our target is the 2013 school year," said Nuh. In mid-June, he met with Tempo reporters Firman Atmakusumah, Erwin Zachri for an interview.
How was the Curriculum 2013 formed?
It involved four major phases. This is nothing new. It's just that it has been a long process. The official document itself is known as the RPJMN (National Mid-Term Development Plan) 2010-2014. It was one of the items I had to agree on when I signed my performance contract with the President.
What were your reference points or guidelines for that reformulation?
Our main reference was the national education standards. There are eight standards: infrastructure, teachers and teaching human resources, funding, management, students' competency, content, process and evaluation. The last four standards are found in the curriculum.
And your next step after the curriculum is formed?
To interpret the curriculum into text books. Then comes the fourth step, which is to prepare the teachers, get them trained. Only after that can we apply it.
Is it true the competency formation was done only recently?
It has been a long process, which felt endless. We had continuous discussions about it. After the public review in December, we got some feedback: some agreed, others did not. It's true that we started accelerating the process in 2012. But we will still proceed with our target of applying it during the 2013 school year.
There is an impression the new curriculum emerged because of student brawls throughout 2012 and an article written by Vice-President Boediono on August 27, in the media.
We have been preparing for this from the start. You can see this in our official documentation.
Is it true the formation was mostly done by an expert staff of yours, Abdullah Alkaff?
Pak Alkaff is indeed an expert staff, but anyone can debate their views so long as they have a concept. So long as anyone has a basic idea and it is acceptable to the academic world, should we reject it?
The head of Puskurbuk was replaced when the curriculum was being formed? Was it because she opposed it too much?
Rotations are normal. There is nothing to it.
Government Regulation No. 32/2013, which covers the KTSP, has not been withdrawn, so how will you enact this new curriculum?
KTSP is just the name of the execution. KTSP has not changed and the curriculum based on character (2013), or KBK, is what we have chosen. After this KTSP, thought patterns will face adjustment. The contents will be enhanced. Should we continue to use the 2006 KTSP? Of course, not. Hence the name, Curriculum 2013.
There is a fear this new curriculum will be based on religion.
Some conclude that with two hours of religious study, we would be creating terrorists, and now it's increased to four. I tell you, people become extremists when when they don't understand religion in its entirety. That is why we inserted elements of social behavior so that the good part of religion can be functional. Then we push it to sow seeds of creativity. Creative people usually have answers to questions, and they have great tolerance.
Many people feel this curriculum is not ready to be applied in 2013.
The current curriculum (formed in 2006) was never given any preparation, yet no one protested. Meanwhile, this new one will be publicized and taught to the same people.
Won't the additional school hours be more burdensome to the students?
I have made comparisons with other countries. Until junior high school, Indonesian students spend 6,000 hours studying. The average around the world is about 7,000 to 8,000 hours. There are even countries that require their students to be in school the full day. So if we want to, we can still add more hours. The school hours for elementary school students will change from 26 hours to 30 hours. This means, every day, 1.35 hours of school time will be added. At the very least, we will reduce the spare and unsupervised time kids will have on their hands.
What has been done to train teachers so they can comply with the new curriculum?
We will be doing it in phases, starting from national instructors, then the core teachers and specific teachers. The national instructors will train the core teachers, who will then train the special teachers. Who are the national instructors? Good teachers, proven by their success in teaching students who have won international competitions, essay writing. They will become the national trainers. We also have a teachers training program funded by USAID and JICA, and we have good university lecturers and activists.
The full interview is available on print in this week's edition of Tempo English (July 3-10).
