Indonesia's Education Problems Are Relieved By Justtributing High School Structure

JAKARTA Indonesia should stick to the long-term education roadmap even though the ministers change. That way, children do not seem to be guinea pigs and the ideals towards Indonesia Gold 2045 are more focused.

Students at the high school level will return to using the IPA, IPS, and Language sections system starting in the 2025/2026 school year, aka next year. This policy will replace the flexible system of the Merdeka Curriculum which was previously initiated by Minister Nadiem Makarim.

Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (Mendikdasmen) Abdul Mu'ti emphasized that this policy was not a form of rejection of the previous minister's steps, but a form of adjustment to the needs of across levels of education. Later, the new policy will be formalized through a new ministerial regulation, as well as revoking Permendikbudristek Number 12 of 2024 which removes the supervisory system at the upper middle level.

The policy of the Minister of Education and Culture Abdul Mu'ti caused various reactions. Many agree that the subsidiary system at the high school level is returned, as stated by the General Chairperson of the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) Unifah Rosyidi.

He supports this step because according to him students need to have good knowledge before exploring certain knowledge.

"Hopefully that students master all knowledge well, but if they are not ready for what happens, students do not get any knowledge or only a little," said Unifah.

However, the National Coordinator of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network, Ubaid Matraji, said that Indonesian education should rely on the long-term education roadmap, instead of changing policies according to the authorities' tastes.

"The problem of reviving the whole thing at the high school level is actually just a technical problem. Even though the point is why education policies always change according to the taste of the authorities, and without evaluation results based on data," said Ubaid when contacted by VOI.

"We should have a long-term roadmap for education, for example 20 years. Don't get rich now, change the minister for policy change. There must be no impact on education," he added.

Ubaid added, if you stick to the education roadmap, then the policy should not change even if the ministers change people. Or in other words, the new minister only continues what has been built.

"So we can measure, for example, where five years Nadiem has reached, so Mr. Abdul Mu'ti continues, right. Later, it will be considered how far he has reached the stairs to the designed milestone, to be continued," said Ubaid.

"But this is not the case, the impression is going back and forth," said Ubaid asserted.

Indonesia has more serious problems than just fussing over the return of the network system at the high school level. Whether it's the whole thing or the interest, which Nadiem Makarim initiated, actually in the field does not have much difference.

More serious problems are actually not touched by just changing policies. Among them is a survey problem that shows 80 percent of students in Indonesia claim to have majored in the wrong direction.

And even after graduating, said Ubaid, 80 percent of their work did not match the study programs in higher education.

"So the problem in Indonesia is actually not as serious as the issue of interest or wholeness. There are more serious problems that should have been solved first," he said.

Chairman of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers' Unions Fahmi Hatib said Mendikdasmen Abdul Mu'ti made a hasty decision. The Independent Curriculum initiated by Nadiem Makarim has not seen the results, so there is no strong reason to change it again.

"Usually the curriculum changes every ten years, this has not changed again for three years. In school I teach alone, there are no graduates from the Merdeka Curriculum," said Fahmi.

But if the government is really serious about reviving the whole system at the high school level, he hopes that labeling or favoritism in one of the majors will be eliminated.

And the most important thing for Fahmi is to improve the quality of teachers and provide the facilities and infrastructure needed by the three majors, namely IPA, IPS, and Language.

He reflected on the implementation of allotment in previous years, where the majority of schools prioritized infrastructure in the form of laboratories to major in the IPA. This gives the impression as if only IPA needed a laboratory.

"Even though the IPS should have also made a special lab. Likewise the language so that they understand the multifunctional language," Fahmi explained.

"This is proof that we are not used as guinea pigs, testing policies," he concluded.