Student’s Speech

The Impact of Curriculum Inconsistency on the Quality of Education in Indonesia

Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

Improving education quality in Indonesia is not an easy task. It’s such a great challenge because
Indonesia education problem is not merely a matter of building human intellectual characters but also
involving a matter of politics and power. No wonder that there is a popular stigma among society
“changing the minister of education means changing the curriculum”.
Can you imagine how the situation demands students to adapt themselves to the new
government’s regulation and policy? Ladies and gentlemen, let’s open our mindset and try to analyze
further the impact of curriculum inconsistency on the quality of education in Indonesia. Well, its impact
can be both positive and negative. The positive impact of changing curriculum can be reflected through
encouraging students to follow the trending education era in improving their qualification. Nevertheless,
we can’t deny that changing curriculum can affect students’ achievement because they can’t completely
fulfill the standard demanded by the new curriculum, and their parents would complaint about the
tuition fee, LKS and books expenses, particularly the direct crucial impact on teachers and school head
masters are demanded to manage their learning-teaching process, learning program and materials, and
also complicated assessment system. That’s why, it’s extremely complicated for every teachers to do so.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The national education curriculum must be gradually studied, upgraded and adjusted based on
the trending era and current educational context in Indonesia. Yes, indeed it is important to strive for
excellence and also to improve the quality of education in Indonesia, thus students are eventually
expected to be golden generation for a better brighter nation future. However, we have to realize that
the government must focus on providing access to qualified education for every citizen. It should be the
first priority that can be attempted by empowering teachers and involving society. It’s relevant to Prof.
Anies Baswedan statement that when the quality of teacher increases, the education quality must also
have increased. Because a qualified teacher is a key to success for improving education.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Last but not least, Prof. Dr. Nanang Fattah from University of Indonesian Education Bandung
stated that a frequent change of the curriculum is supposed to be neither effective nor efficient.
Otherwise, he proposed better solution to upgrade teacher’s competence instead of changing the
curriculum since the success of education mostly affected by teachers. So, teachers…. You have a great
task. In your head, in your heart and in your hand… the future of students depend on you. There will be
no excuse for teachers to not develop learning teaching method in the classrooms. Teachers: Your
creativity and courage to make innovation, break the limit of your comfort zone, leave the old
conventional method are the keys to scaffold the education in Indonesia.
Thank you.

In September, Indonesia’s Ministry for Research, Technology and Higher

Education suspended Jakarta State University (UNJ) rector Professor
Djaali after a ministry-sponsored review found evidence of academic
misconduct and mismanagement at the university.

UNJ is one of the country’s most prominent teacher training colleges and
according to official records has more than 17,000 students.

Among the irregularities identified by the review were manipulation of

administrative records, excessive concentration of doctoral supervision
responsibilities in the hands of individual supervisors, and widespread
plagiarism.

The evidence of plagiarism raised questions about the university’s

awarding of numerous doctorates, including one to Wiranto, former
presidential candidate and current Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law
and Security. Wiranto, who was supervised by Djaali, graduated cum
laude from UNJ with a doctorate in human resources management in
2013.
The review findings came in the wake of growing tensions between
Djaali and UNJ staff over his appointment of several family members to
academic and administrative positions. Shortly before the announcement
of the review findings, the National Ombudsman upheld a complaint by
staff that the rector had abused his authority and engaged in nepotism in
making these appointments.

This case illustrates much of what is wrong with Indonesia’s education

system.

Over the past few decades, the country has done much to improve
access to education, particularly at the primary and junior secondary
level. Today, Indonesian children are starting school earlier and staying
in education longer than they ever have before.

But Indonesia has made much less progress in improving the quality of
education.

The country regularly ranks towards the bottom of international

standardised tests of student achievement – such as the Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and Progress in International
Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) – lower than neighbouring
countries including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Few Indonesian universities make the world’s top 500 in league tables,
such as the QS, Times Higher Education, and Academic Ranking of
World Universities, reflecting poor academic standards and a low volume
and quality of scholarly research.

Most analyses have attributed these problems to inadequate funding,

human resource deficits, perverse incentive structures, and poor
management. There is no doubt that these factors have mattered.

But the country’s problems with education quality have been, at their
root, a matter of politics and power. Like other parts of Indonesia’s state
apparatus, public educational institutions, both schools and higher
education providers, have been captured by predatory officials with little
interest in promoting learning.
Rather than being mechanisms through which the country achieves
educational and economic objectives, public educational institutions in
Indonesia have instead become vehicles through which predatory elites
accumulate resources, distribute patronage, mobilise political support,
and exercise political control.

School principal and university management positions are regularly sold

to the highest bidder in exchange for the opportunity to use these
positions for personal enrichment and the lubrication of patronage
networks.

At the same time, teachers have become deeply embroiled in electoral

politics, especially at the local level.

There are more than three million teachers in Indonesia, and they
represent a key electoral constituency. It is not uncommon for teachers
who support successful local political candidates to be rewarded with
promotions or attractive appointments, and for those who back losing
candidates to be demoted or banished to outlying parts of a region.

The school system has also been used to promote values over skills.
The New Order made courses in Pancasila, the state ideology,
compulsory at all levels of the education system – a move aimed at
ensuring allegiance to the state, not learning. The current government
insists that school children take courses in “character education”.

All this has served to undermine learning and, in particular, acquisition of

skills needed to enhance national economic competitiveness.

Some hope that as competition for students increases, Indonesia’s many

private schools and universities will be driven to raise academic
standards, and thereby emerge as centres of quality. But the vast
majority of these institutions are “spillover” bodies that enroll students
who fail to secure places at more prestigious state institutions.

In late 2014, then Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan

declared that the country faced an education “emergency”. The UNJ
case suggests that this emergency continues.
For more than a decade, government education plans have stated that
the country needs to produce “smart and competitive” individuals who
can compete successfully for jobs and other opportunities in an
increasingly globalised economy. Consistent with this objective, the
government envisages Indonesia’s education system becoming
“internationally competitive” by 2025, and growing numbers of
Indonesian universities entering the world’s top 500 universities.

Given the political obstacles to improved quality, however, it will be

enormously difficult to realise these ambitions.

Improved education quality in Indonesia requires more than the injection

of additional funds and the delivery of new training programs for
teachers and the like – the usual measures recommended by education
and development experts.

It requires a more fundamental reorientation of the education system and

the politics underpinning it, something unlikely to occur in the
foreseeable future.

Andrew Rosser is the author of a new Lowy Institute Analysis, Beyond

access: Making Indonesia’s education system work.