Curriculum of Education

It's just another article of my assignment from Critical Reading and Writing class. In this assignment we're discussing about a curriculum of Indonesian education. This task is started by sharing about our experience in high school about curriculum, well then I discussed it with a friend of mine who was sitting next to me, Tiara. Then the result of the sharing is made into a writing, yeah, it was like free writing. Finishing writing about what I've shared to Tiara, my lecturer asked us to make an argumentative article based on the thing that we've shared, then adding our knowledge about education curriculum. Here, I'm gonna show you my free writing about curriculum that I've discussed with Tiara, tadaaaaa :

P.S sorry for my bad hand-writing :p

then, having done with the sharing moment project, every student had to make an argumentative article like what I've said before, and this is my writing, feel free to give comment anyway . . . 

ENGLISH CANNOT BE OMITTED

FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

 by Haniah Hamidah Sahid

“... memajukan kesejahteraan umum, mencerdaskan kehidupan bangsa, dan ikut melaksanakan ketertiban dunia ... .”

                Looking at The Preamble of 1945 Constitution of Indonesia, we can see that education is one of Indonesian’s visions, but has that vision been achieved? The answer is probably not yet, that is why we need a curriculum to arrange the education system. The curriculum itself is often changed following the time in order to get the best result of education system development, so hopefully Indonesia will be able to have good quality for every single person in Indonesia who has been educated. Indonesia has experienced many curricula  before 1945, Indonesia used to use many curriculum from Netherlands, the colonizer of Indonesia. It was just after 1945 Indonesia used the curriculum which were made by Indonesia originally, those were Curriculum 1947, Curriculum 1952, Rentjana Pelajaran Terurai 1952, Curriclum 1964, Rentjana Pendidikan 1964, Curriculum 1964, Curriculum 1984, Curriculum 1994 and Suplemen Kurikulum 1999, Curriculum 2004, KBK (Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi), Curriculum 2006 and the latest is KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan). English is automatically included as a subject which uses those curriculum, or in other word the curriculum of English always follow the curriculum which is applied. The question is whether it does work or not. Let see the fact of English development in students.

                Some students learn a lot of English from school which is designed in curriculum because they did not learn or practice English outside of class. Yet, actually when they were in High School they did not understand exactly what the function of curriculum is, the matter is they understand the lesson which is transferred by the teachers to them. The problem is maybe because the teachers did never give the syllabus to the students, or if the teachers did but they did not tell the students why they must have the syllabus. Is the curriculum that important? Yes, it is.

                Curriculum must be an important thing for teacher to make a lesson plan for students so that the materials will be well-organized, and it is important for the teacher to give and explain the curriculum or syllabus to the students, moreover the implementation of KTSP is how the teacher deliver the message of the curriculum to the students to shape their competence that are compatible with their characters and abilities. So, here the teachers should facilitate the learning process to the students in order to make them be able to interact with their environment so that they will have better behavior. Just imagine if learning process which is started without knowing the syllabus happens continually  it will be a big problem for education system. Moreover for teaching English subject in this globalization era, the teacher cannot teach the student like transferring data to the student. English is no longer as ‘strange’ subject, but now it seems like a must for student to be able to use English actively in reading, listening, writing and speaking. Student needs to practice English as often as possible, not only receiving the theory from one source, the teacher. Student needs and has to explore their knowledge by looking for other sources and practice a lot, because learning English only in a class is not enough. So, once again, teacher needs to give the syllabus or curriculum to student that students will understand what they should achieve after one semester learning in the class.

                Looking back again to the vision of Indonesia on the Preamble of 1945 Constitution of Indonesia, develop the nation’s intellectual life, so to make it come true,Indonesian government always tries to look for the most applicable education system for Indonesia by changing the curriculum, and the newest plan is changing the KTSP with Curriculum 2013, that means the curriculum of English also changes, moreover the fact is English subject will be omitted from Elementary School, so student will learn English on high school. Is it a good decision? The answer is big no. It will be too late for the students if they have to start learning English at young or adult age. They should learn a language in a very beginning age.

                According to one of Krashen’s language acquisition theory, English has natural order which means the acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in a predictable order. So, we can deduce that English as the second language for Indonesian also has natural order that means students will have their own level to learn English. It is false if English subject in elementary school burdens the students and make them forget the mother tongue or Bahasa Indonesia and their original culture. It has been right if English is taught since early age. In the early age they learn the vocabulary because children don’t have yet the ability to understand the grammar. At the next level, or when they grow up they will be ready to receive any explanation of grammar because according to Piaget,they have been already at concrete operational stage, so they will understand about grammar. Just imagine that the students just know English at the young age, they will get problems because at their age they should understand the grammar or the rule of language but they don’t know the vocabulary at all. The result will be the English language will not develop naturally, there will be many enforcement of understanding English. So, a decision to omit English from elementary school in Curriculum 2013 is a big mistake. Forever, we cannot omit English from elementary school, so the students will not get problem or big difficulty in learning English in Junior and Senior High School.

                If English is still seen as the reason students forget their original culture, include Bahasa Indonesia, we need to take a look at the paradigm of Ki Hajar Dewantara, the figure of Indonesian education, that is education should emphasize nation, independence and self-autonomy. So, if the education should  focus on those three things, is it always about teaching ‘what will you do if your friend is in the trouble’, ‘what should you do if your friend has different religion from you and he/she is going to do his/her ritual’, ‘what does provision 28 of 1945 Constitution tell about?’  or ‘Ini bapak Budi’ and ‘Ini ibu budi’? No, it is not. To achieve those three things we do not only teach Civic Education (Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan) and Bahasa Indonesia too much. We also need to explore our country by doing cooperation with other countries all over the world such as introducing our culture to other countries, doing export Indonesian output to get income, contributing to the implementation of a world order based on freedom, lasting peace and social justice, etc. So, how do we do that? Teaching English to student of course. Whether we like or not, English is now a need of every single person to survive in this globalization era, because English is a global language which is able to connect one another. So, we can conclude that omitting English from Elementary School is kind of a mistake, because however learning second language is just the same as learning first language. We will have the natural order to teach that. It will be difficult to students if they have just known English in the high school whereas everything nowadays is connected to English practice such as gadget, public service instructions, etc.

                Thus, it is better for Indonesia to keep English as the main subject in education system, but in order to maintain the nation, independence and self-autonomy values, we can take Indonesian values on the topic of English lesson, so that student will be able to develop their skill as the local and global society.

REFERENCES

                Aji, Gregorius Punto. Approaches, Methods, and Techniques. Sanata Dharma University.

Asmani, Jamal Ma’mur. 2012. Tips Menjadi Guru Inspiratif, Kreatif, dan Inovatif. Yogyakarta : DIVA Press.

                Purwanto, Edi and others. 2011. Wajah Kusam Pendidikan Kita. Malang : Program Sekolah Demokrasi in collaboration with Averroes Press.

Onlline Sources

http://www.sarjanaku.com/2012/01/perkembangan-kurikulum-di-indonesia.html browsed on Friday, 22^nd March, 2013 at 9:43 P.M .

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/talkback/should-education-ministry-eliminate-english-and-reintroduce-pancasila-in-school-curriculum/551235 browsed on Friday, 22nd March, 2013 at 9:43 P.M.

http://matthewhanzel.com/2011/03/09/pembukaan-uud-1945-dan-terjemahan-bahasa-inggris/ browssed on Friday, 22^nd March, 2013 at 9:50 P.M.

http://rodajaman.blogspot.com/2012/12/perbandingan-struktur-kurikulum-2013.html#footer browsed on Saturday, 23^rd March, 2013 at 4:17 A.M.

http://intanrumapea.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/tugas-dan-peran-guru-dalam-ktsp/ browsed on Saturday, 23^rd March, 2013 at 4:50 A.M.