The Strange of Indonesia Education system (Omitting English language in Elementary school curriculum and including attitude lesson to curriculum)

On Saturday 30-03-2013 Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University held a general  course “ketamansiswaan”  followed by the magister students from the Department English Education,
Evaluation and development of education and education management. Among the themes presented in the general course are “ketamansiswaan” and indonesia education system or which could be called a "Kurrikulum 2013" as a replacement for the previous curriculum "KTSP 2006".

In the 2013 curriculum there are some awkwardness which should not have happened namely;did not include the English language in the 2013 curriculum for elementary  school, and include attitude lesson  into the curriculum, with the reason English is too difficult for young learners, and include lessons attitude because considering moral deterioration of the nation. The government does not realize that Indonesia is a country that has a multilingual or multiculture, each person must have at least two languages namely local language (mother tongue) and the national language (Indonesian). Here proved that the ability to speak Indonesian society is very high compared with countries that only use monolingual. When we examine human with psycholinguistic studies, we will discover that the human brains have a special part that functions to learn language or can be called “language aquicition device”, so it is not difficult for students to learn English. It also must be supported by the a professional teacher. Teachers have exciting ways or methods of learning english so as to to eliminate the interfaith understanding that English is difficult to learn.

In Indonesia, there are many teachers always make learning english is difficult, they often give tests to their students and always uses textbook for sources of teaching. Teacher will be happier when they got news that their student get a good value in National Examination than getting news that their student can speak english fluently with foreign people. It means that teacher have forgotten the main function of language namely to communicate to others.

English is the language that used by people around the world and it certainly helps you to understand the world as well as understand Arabic language to learn islamic religion from holly koran, therefore learing english earlier since childhood is very important. It could help student to know the world and they will have international insight when adulthood.

Then how about the inclusion of attitude into curriculum lessons in 2013? I think that this is a redundant thing done by the department of education because it forces students to memorize something that should not need to be memorized by students, in essence attitude is a habit and they must have been memorized automatically what they do everyday. The Government should provide the method of teaching “attitude” based on the contextual that inserted in all of elementary subjects suach as inserting the the values of strunggle when teaching indonesian and ennglish language.

Teacher motivates students to learn Indonesian language because with learning it , we will be able to study the diversity of Indonesian culture and with learing  English language we will be able to introduce and teach Indonesian language , culture and natural beauty of Indonesia to people around the world. When we look at the japanese nation, why Japanese nation can move forward because they already require students to learn English and Japanese language with hope when they grow up and learn to European countries, they were able to translate the science source books into Japanese language and introduce japanese product to the world.

In mathematics lessons, teachers are able to teach a good attitude to their students, for example when they teach their student about honesty in trading. Teacher to teach  students how to calculate the correct scale and encourage students to be careful when calculating the weights because when the scales do not match what is required is a commendable act.

From my description above I can conclude that the government is too hasty to abolish the English language in the elementary school curriculum and include attitude in the curriculum for reasons that are not based on rigorous review. Hopefully with my description above, its could be a reflection of indonesia teachers to improve their teaching method and strategies so  they can implement the four pillars of education presented by UNISCO. There are; learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be.

Sources:

Gunawan, Prof. Dr, Logical Framework Approach: Penyiap kemampuan berfikir filsafati, Philosophy of Science course material, 2013

Handbook of presentation “Ketamansiswaan about Kurrikulum 2013 presented by Dinas Pendidikan Djogjakarta, 2013.