New School Curriculum ‘Vulnerable to Corruption’: Education Coalition

New School Curriculum ‘Vulnerable to Corruption’: Education Coalition

                     By Jakarta Globe on 10:52 am March 21, 2013.


The Coalition to Reject the 2013 Education Curriculum is planning to report to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) its findings on potential corruption practices linked to the new school curriculum, an activist said on Thursday.

JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya

The coalition is composed of members of the Indonesia Corruption Watch, the Indonesia Teachers’ Union and several education observers.Febri Hendri, the ICW coordinator for public service monitoring, was quoted by the Tempo Interaktif online news portal as saying that the coalition believed the new curriculum provided too many opportunities for corruption.

“The budget is vulnerable to corruption, especially in the provision of textbooks,” Febri told Tempo. However, he declined to provide more details, saying that he preferred to meet with the KPK leadership.

ICW has reported that from 2004 to 2011, there were at least six corruption cases linked to the procurement of books, totaling state losses of Rp 54.9 billion ($5.64 million).Febri said that the coalition was awaiting a response from the KPK on when members could meet with the leaders of the antigraft body.

The new education curriculum is expected to be implemented in the 2013-2014 school year, which begins in July. It has been met with mounting opposition from many in the education sector, who said that the new curriculum was putting too much emphasis on religious and moral education and not enough focus on science and English.

The government has requested Rp 2.49 trillion to develop and implement the national school curriculum, which experts say could be used to address the discrepancy in the numbers of quality teachers between major cities and remote areas of the country. Textbook provision gets an allotment of Rp 1.2 trillion, while another Rp 1.09 trillion is earmarked for teacher training.

The Coalition to Reject the 2013 Education Curriculum earlier this month delivered a petition with more than 1,500 signatures to the Education Ministry, rejecting Indonesia’s new school curriculum which will see science and social studies dropped as core subjects in July. The ICW, parents, teachers and practitioners started the petition on Dec. 5 after they failed to reach an agreement with ministry officials following a series of talks.

The new curriculum sparked controversy and polarized the nation when it was revealed in December, with proponents of the plan arguing that their children had long felt overburdened by the curriculum.

But opponents of the plan argued that it would make Indonesians less competitive in the globalized market and discriminate against those who could not afford to send their children to private English and science tuition centers.