House Commission X Urges Transparent Textbook Reform, Free from Business Interests

Deputy Chairman of House Commission X Lalu Hadrian Irfani has reminded that the renewal of national textbooks, as proposed by the government, must involve education experts.

“The books to be changed are not only about physical appearance. The material, the substance, the content must also be changed. Involve all education experts,” Lalu said when met at the parliamentary complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Thursday.

He said Commission X of the House, which oversees education affairs, essentially agrees with the plan of President Prabowo Subianto.

In addition to involving experts, Lalu also said the renewal of national textbooks must be carried out transparently. In this regard, he encouraged a public review before the new books are distributed.

“This public review is important so that no issues arise, so that no opinion emerges that it is only being worked on by a particular group for a particular interest,” he said.

He also stressed that the new books should be provided to all students in Indonesia free of charge.

“Our hope is that with the change of these subject textbooks, this does not become a new business field. This must be given free of charge to our students, not only in cities but throughout the country,” he said.

Previously, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said the government continues to finalise steps to renew national textbooks as an effort to strengthen the foundation of education and human resources.

In his statement in Jakarta on Friday (7/8), Teddy said the evaluation began with President Prabowo Subianto’s findings when he directly reviewed textbooks in a number of schools.

President Prabowo, Teddy said, assessed that there are still various aspects that need to be improved, both in terms of content and the physical quality of the books.

“When checking the textbooks, he looked at them one by one, and found that some of the materials were easily damaged, some were already damaged, and the writing was very small, so that primary school children in particular had to read very closely. Then, when read, it was not very good, so on that basis, he wanted to check all the books from primary to senior secondary school,” he said.

According to Teddy, after studying the textbooks used in Indonesia, the President then instructed that a comparison be made with textbooks from neighbouring countries as an evaluation to improve the quality of national textbooks.