Govt out to revise unpopular 1997 school curriculum

Govt out to revise unpopular 1997 school curriculum

JAKARTA (JP): The government has set up a team to revise the
1994 curriculum for elementary and junior high schools, widely
criticized for overburdening students and their teachers.

Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono said here
yesterday the team was expected to be able to finish its task
within a year to allow an amended curriculum to be introduced in
the 2000-2001 academic year.

Antara news agency reported Juwono acknowledged the current
curriculum for elementary, junior and senior high schools was
burdensome for students and faculty and needed to be reviewed
immediately.

He added that many elementary and junior high school teachers
experienced difficulties in applying the curriculum because they
did not have the necessary training.

The government will therefore require elementary school
teachers to have at least a D-2 diploma certification, junior
high school teachers to have D-3 diploma certification and senior
high school teachers to be S-1 university graduates, he said.

Education experts and observers have frequently criticized the
curriculum overly demanding and only suitable for academically
outstanding students.

Antara reported educators said a number of disciplines such as
math, physics and chemistry were considered to involve too many
class hours even though some materials overlapped.

Juwono also announced yesterday the government had frozen an
indoctrination course in the Pancasila state ideology for new
university students, pending the decision of BP7, the agency in
charge of the dissemination of Pancasila, on whether to
discontinue the program. (rms)