New curriculum to be implemented

New curriculum to be implemented

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Education and Culture says a new
elementary and secondary education curriculum, an improved
version of the 1994 curriculum currently in place, will be
implemented at the beginning of the 1999/2000 academic year in
mid-July.

After the inauguration of several officials on Wednesday,
Director General of Basic and Secondary Education Indra Jati Sidi
told Antara that a team was currently preparing the curriculum.

"The new curriculum is a simplification of some of the
previous material, an enrichment. (It will be achieved by) adding
other material, and the elimination of some material which
overlaps with that contained in the higher education level.

"For instance, some material for elementary schools will be
taken out because it overlaps with the curriculum for junior high
schools," he said.

Indra said the new curriculum would be fully in place at the
start of the 2000/2001 academic year, which was why the team
would continue its work on the project until then.

Indra discounted fears that the new curriculum would burden
parents. He said current textbooks would still be used because
the new curriculum did not differ markedly from the old one.

He said the government had considered the range of obstacles
that usually accompanied a curriculum change, including the
availability of funds for the production of new textbooks,
parents' readiness to buy new books, and book publishers ability
to produce new books.

Indra said teachers would not need special training to put the
new curriculum into practice. "There's no fundamental change ...
so it's generally easy."

However, the Ministry of Education and Culture has prepared
supplementary material for teachers -- to be distributed at the
end of this month -- to supplement their current teaching
material. For instance, there will be additional information
about the 1965 aborted coup attempt by the outlawed Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI).

The 1994 curriculum was launched by then minister of education
and culture Wardiman Djojonegoro. It was designed to meet growing
industry needs by providing skilled human resources based on a
"link and match" orientation in which schools would provide basic
vocational training to students entering a specific occupation.

The 1994 curriculum replaced the 1984 one, which focused on an
active learning process by students facilitated by their
teachers. However, the 1994 curriculum has received a barrage of
criticism for being too centralistic and rigid.

Earlier in the day, Minister of Education and Culture Juwono
Sudarsono installed Endro Sumarjo to replace Soedijarto as
Director General of Extracurricular Activities and Sport, and I
Gusti Ngurah Anom to replace Edi Sedyawati as the Director
General of Culture.

Also sworn in were Haris Sukendar, who replaced Hasan Muarif
Ambary as the head of the Center for the Studies of National
Archaeology, Willem Uda who replaced Soeratmo as the deputy
inspector general of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and
Trijado who is now secretary to Endro Sumarjo's office. (swe)