JakartaPost-Feb 13
When Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim introduced the Kurikulum Merdeka (Freedom Curriculum) early last year, some observers were unconvinced that it would be compatible with schools nationwide. But, one year on, the new curriculum has been widely adopted in many schools, with teachers welcoming the curriculum’s emphasis on flexibility in learning structures – despite it being optional, not mandatory, until the end of the 2023/2024 academic year next year. According to ministry data, over 156,000 schools across the country, ranging from early childhood education institutions all the way up to senior high schools, around 35 percent of schools, had fully or partially implemented the new curriculum as of January. “[The adoption rate] has far exceeded our target. We did not have a strict target [of how many schools would pick up the curriculum] when we launched it last year, but we expected around 16,000 schools would do so,” head of the education ministry’s center for curriculum and learning Zulfikri Anas said on Thursday. He said educators were eager to try out the new curriculum due to its flexibility, in addition to focusing on only the most essential learning materials for students. Unlike the previous 2013 national curriculum which set out a certain amount of learning hours per week for each subject, the Kurikulum Merdeka sets out annual targets, in effect giving teachers the freedom to structure their teaching programs and learning timetables. When Minister Nadiem launched the Kurikulum Merdeka in February last year, he touted it as an answer to the nationwide trend of learning loss, or the loss of knowledge and skills that students experience when they are not in school, that had taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2022 World Bank report found that remote learning was largely ineffective, with each month of school closures leading to a full month of lost learning. The report also concluded that learning loss could harm the total lifetime incomes of children and youth. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/02/13/merdeka-curriculum-sees-increasing-popularity.html.
