New curriculum dazes teachers

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many elementary school teachers revealed that the implementation of the new competence-based curriculum still had a long way to go mainly due to the lack of preparation and supporting factors to carry out the program.

"We have not yet received any information (from the government) about the curriculum and when it will be implemented in our school," Yusnelly, the principal of state elementary school 05 Cilandak, South Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a seminar on developing a smart and creative generation, which was participated in by 1,500 elementary school teachers here last Friday.

She also said that teachers at her school had not received training in the new curriculum.

Yusnelly, who claims that she had only heard a little about the curriculum, said that the new curriculum would be difficult to carry out due to the shortage of teachers and the huge numbers of students they have to oversee.

"At my school, there are only seven teachers to handle 260 students. It's impossible for us to keep our eye on them all individually," said Yusnelly.

Similarly, Mansyur Usman of state elementary school 07 Balimester, Jatinegara, East Jakarta also admitted that apparent constraints which could hamper the implementation of the new curriculum were, among others, the students "shame culture."

Mansyur revealed that he often found that the active learning method did not work in the classroom as the students were too shy to speak out.

"I often try hard to stimulate the students to give more active responses but I am unsuccessful as they are too shy to speak out," Mansyur said.

Mansyur said posing questions in class was still not popular among the children. "Those posing questions are often considered stupid."

Besides, Mansyur said, the students' limited mastery of the language could also prevent them from daring to speak in the classroom.

He also said that his school which has 220 students had yet to implement the new curriculum.

The government is planning to adopt a competence-based curriculum in 2004, replacing the previous 1994 curriculum which is considered too authoritarian and centralized.

The new curriculum is designed to empower the schools, especially the teachers, to design their own education program so that it is in accordance with the competencies needed by students in each subject based on local conditions.

Therefore, unlike the previous curricula of 1975, 1984, and 1994, the new curriculum does not propose all the materials that should be taught; rather it sets standards of competence that students should acquire at certain levels of education.

The competence-based curriculum allows more leeway within which schools and teachers can work. Schools and teachers, therefore, have a greater role and responsibility in designing the applied curriculum to ensure that students can achieve the expected competence.

However, some teachers of private elementary schools revealed that they have introduced the new curriculum to the students.

"We have started implementing the new curriculum since last year, but so far, it implementation is still fraught by many constraints," said Muhammad Amin of private elementary school Dian Didaktika in Cinere, South Jakarta. The school has about 500 students.

He said that the lack of adequate supporting materials, including books and displays were among the constraints that made the new curriculum hard to implement.

Amin revealed that books and visual materials were needed to make the subjects simpler and easier for the students.

"It is public knowledge that books here are very expensive so that a great deal of funds are needed to procure them," Amin said.