“The prototype curriculum is a development of the emergency curriculum. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology in early 2021 showed that students who used the emergency curriculum had better learning outcomes than students who fully used the 2013 curriculum. For that reason, the prototype curriculum was developed," she noted in a written statement received here on Friday.
According to Muthiah, further studies by independent research institutions are needed to ascertain whether the prototype curriculum can really improve the quality of learning among students.
"If the implementation of the curriculum is really related with the improvement in learning outcomes, then the implementation of the curriculum should be continued," she said.
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The essence of a curriculum is to increase the quality of education, she highlighted. Thus, the decision to change the curriculum must be based on that goal, she said.
“Since independence, Indonesia has implemented more than ten curricula. However, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data has shown stagnation in the quality of education in Indonesia. This means that the various curriculum changes that have been made so far have not been able to improve the quality of education," she pointed out.
To improve the quality of education, improvements should not only be made to the curriculum but also in the quality of teachers, schools, the readiness of educational infrastructure, and other aspects, she said.
"So far, the improvement in the curriculum has not been able to improve the quality of education because other factors are not ready yet," she elaborated.
Therefore, the implementation of the prototype curriculum, which will start in 2022 in several Activator Schools and Center of Excellence Vocational High Schools, must consider the teachers' readiness, she reiterated.
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Translator: Indriani, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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