Freedom to Learn and the Journey of the Indonesian Education Curriculum

The education curriculum plays a crucial role in enhancing the teaching-learning process and education quality. There are components included in the curriculum, namely objectives, content, methods, and education evaluation. These four components are interrelated as a unified whole.

Designing a curriculum as an education roadmap is certainly not easy. The distribution of archipelagic regions, the quality of human resources, and the availability of educational facilities and infrastructure pose challenges in developing equal education quality in Indonesia.

The government through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) continues to strive to improve the quality of education in Indonesia through the education curriculum. Throughout its journey, since the nation's independence until now, there have been 11 changes in the national education curriculum (1947, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1984, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2013, 2022).

Education curriculum in the Old Order era

Referring to the publication from the Ministry of Education and Culture and Research Technology, the Curriculum Plan of 1947 was the first curriculum in Indonesia during the leadership era of President Soekarno. Although it was still influenced by the education system left by the Dutch and Japanese, this curriculum prioritized character education, national consciousness, and community involvement.

Considering the political and societal situation post-independence and efforts to maintain independence, this planning was taken as an attempt to shape the Indonesian people's character based on Pancasila. Due to political instability in the early days of independence, the curriculum was only implemented in 1950 and also known as the 1950 Curriculum.

In 1952, the national education curriculum underwent improvement with the presence of the Detailed Lesson Plan of 1952. The curriculum that aimed at the national education system was also filled with learning related to daily life. This curriculum also gave birth to the "kelas masyarakat" which was a special school for graduates of the people's school, but did not continue to junior high school (SMP).

Towards the end of the Soekarno era, there were curriculum improvements that added academic knowledge at the elementary school level. The curriculum improvement in 1964 aimed at mastering science and practical activities centered on Pancawardhana (creativity, taste, will, work, and moral).

Curriculum education in the New Order era

Entering the era of President Soeharto's leadership, the education curriculum also underwent improvements through the 1968 Curriculum. This curriculum is a manifestation of the change in orientation in implementing the 1945 Constitution purely and consistently with the aim of forming true, strong, and physically healthy Pancasila humans.

Curriculum changes occurred again in 1975. The 1975 curriculum wanted to create a more effective and efficient form of education by applying a well-known concept at that time, namely the concept of management by object (MBO). Along the way, the implementation of this curriculum has attracted criticism because teachers are only busy writing about the achievements of each lesson.

Not long after the curriculum change, there was a refinement of the 1975 Curriculum in 1984. The reference concept of the 1984 Curriculum uses the student-centered active learning model, placing students as the subject of learning.

The last education curriculum improvement that occurred during the leadership of President Soeharto was in 1994, which referred to the implementation of education based on Law Number 2 of 1989 concerning the National Education System.

The purpose of education is based on creating individuals who have faith and devotion to the One Almighty God and possess noble character, knowledge, and skills, physical and spiritual health, stable and independent personality, as well as a sense of responsibility towards society and nationality.

Educational curriculum since the Reformation era

The changes in curriculum didn't stop in the Old Order and New Order era, it also occurred in the Reform era. In 2004, the Competency-Based Curriculum (KBK) became the new education roadmap after the 1998 reformation.

This curriculum is a form of demand from the Reform era regarding the authority of the central and provincial governments as autonomous regions in the direction of national education policy (MPR Decree No. IV/MPR/1999).

This curriculum aims to develop students' competencies as individuals and in a classical orientation towards learning outcomes and diversity with various methods of learning variation. Teachers are given the freedom to conduct the learning process and only need to focus on the achievement of expected competencies (knowledge, understanding, skills, values, attitudes, and interests).

Not long after that, two years later, the curriculum changed again to the 2006 School-Based Curriculum (KTSP). This curriculum aims to integrate national education with the characteristics, conditions, and potential of each region. This curriculum gives schools greater authority in determining the learning model.

The government made changes to the curriculum again in 2013 through 2013 Curriculum. This curriculum aims to develop three aspects, namely knowledge, skills, and attitudes and behavior with an integrative thematic approach.

Independent Learning Curriculum

Next, the leadership era of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Nadiem Makarim implemented Independent Curriculum Learning. This curriculum has been prepared since 2020, then implemented and evaluated in stages since 2021.

The Merdeka Belajar curriculum focuses on developing soft skills and character, focusing on essential material, and flexible learning. In its implementation, in the 2021/2022 academic year, the Independent Curriculum prototype was implemented in more than 3,000 driving schools and vocational schools.

Next, in the academic year 2022/2023, the Merdeka Curriculum will be one of the curriculum options that can be chosen by educational units. The Merdeka Curriculum is applied voluntarily by 140,000 educational units. By 2023/2024, more than 300,000 educational units have voluntarily implemented the Merdeka Curriculum.

Also read: Independent Curriculum Officially Becomes National Curriculum

On March 25, 2024, Minister Nadiem Makarim issued Education and Culture Technology Regulation No. 12 of 2024 regarding the Curriculum for Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education.

This Permendikbudristek (Ministerial Regulation on Education and Culture Research and Technology) serves as a legal framework for the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum as a national curriculum starting from the academic year 2024/2025. Nevertheless, its implementation still takes into account the readiness of educational units with a transition period of up to three years into the future.

The future of the Independent Curriculum

As part of the joint movement of all components of the nation, Minister Nadiem believes that the Merdeka Curriculum is starting to bring progress to the world of education and culture, so it needs to be continued. "Everything that we have been striving for must be continued as a journey towards realizing the school we aspire to," said Nadiem.

The statement was conveyed by Nadiem during the commemoration of this year's National Education Day on May 2, 2024 (Kompas.id, 5/2/2024). The statement is also in line with the theme of Hardiknas 2024, which is "Moving Together, Continuing Independence Learning".

The statement of Minister Nadiem and the theme of the 2024 National Education Day show the hope for the sustainability of the Merdeka Belajar (Freedom to Learn) as a national curriculum, even though the government is going to change in October 2024.

However, traces of guidelines for developing quality of education in Indonesia show that curriculum changes often occur in the world of national education. Changes in eras of leadership or political turmoil in the country are the two dominant factors that cause changes to the national education curriculum.

Apart from all of that, the existence of the education curriculum carries the mandate of the nation to improve the quality of education and the Indonesian society. Until now, several challenges to achieve better educational quality are still faced by the Indonesian nation.

Also read: Exploring Educational Content in the Independent Curriculum

Referring to data from the Central Statistics Agency in 2022, one third of the entire population in Indonesia aged above five has a junior high school education. In addition, the percentage of higher education graduates in Indonesia is only 7.57 percent (Kompas.id, 2/5/2024).

Likewise with the achievements of Indonesia's Human Development Index (HDI). In 2023, Indonesia's HDI will still be at 0.71 and will be in 112th place in the world. Indonesia's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) score is still below the average for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and ASEAN-5 countries. (COMPAS R&D)

Also read: The Path of the Independent Curriculum to Become the New National Curriculum