New curriculum not up to snuff<\/p>\n
The article Indonesia to introduce new education curriculum
\n(The Jakarta Post, Feb. 23, p. 1) suggests that the Ministry of
\nEducation may be a bit out of step with recent political and
\nlegal changes, which began with the 1999 Decentralization Law.<\/p>\n
In many decentralized\/federal countries, education is the
\nright and duty of regional or even local governments. The
\nargument is that local educators know local needs and conditions
\nbest, and this is given a limited recognition by the \"local
\ncontent studies\" proposed by the Ministry of Education here. A
\nlimited experimentation by decentralized educational authorities
\nbenefits the entire country: results from these experiments are
\neasily evaluated when students take standardized tests or compete
\nfor places at the better universities, institutes, etc., and
\neducational disasters are quickly detected and affect fewer
\nstudents.<\/p>\n
The old adage of \"Jakarta knows best\" is increasingly being
\nquestioned; if regional governments are forced to pay much of the
\ncost of a curriculum they have little control over, this will be
\na source of dissatisfaction in a democracy.<\/p>\n
Education in Indonesia is widely held to be overcentralized,
\noverregulated and overly routinized. The ministry's proposals do
\nlittle to deal with this criticism, and I hope the subsequent
\ndebate will clarify what Indonesians want from their educational
\nsystem.<\/p>\n
PAUL H. BRIETZKE<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/new-curriculum-not-up-to-snuff-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }