INOVASI, as one of the programs that works in the education sector, supported MoEC’s effort to socialize this emergecy curriculum in the provincial partners, specifically in four regencies in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province, i.e., West Sumba, Central Sumba, East Sumba, and Nagekeo. This socialization targets teachers, principals, supervisors, and other important stakeholders within the scope of four regencies’ Education Offices.
During this activity, the attending officials of the Education Office were the Head of Education and Culture Office of Nagekeo regency, Tiba Aloysius; Secretary of Education Office of West Sumba regency, Yehuda Malorung; Secretary of Education Office of East Sumba, Ruben Nggulindima; and Head of Elementary School Section of Education, Youth, and Sports Office, of Central Sumba Regency, Magdalena Kalli. The representative from INOVASI program was the Program Manager for NTT, Hironimus Sugi, who gave an opening speech. Meanwhile, the related socialization material was presented by the INOVASI’s Coordinator for Pilot and Partnership, Kania Dewi.
The Socialization was held in phases and online via Zoom. For West Sumba and Nagekeo Regencies, it was held in the morning of Friday, September 11, 2020, and in East Sumba Regency, in the afternoon on the same day. Meanwhile in Central Sumba, it was held in the morning of Monday, September 14, 2020.
The Head of Education and Culture Office of Nagekeo Regency, Tiba Aloysius, appreciated INOVASI’s support in facilitating this socialization. In his opinion, teachers are still confused as to which curriculum they should use for teaching; therefore, further information is needed on how to implement the curriculum during special circumstances such as the present one.
“Teachers face difficulties in choosing the curriculum as reference; thus, through this socialization, teachers, principals, and supervisors can get to know better the available curriculum that is suitable for the ability and needs of learners,” explained Aloysius.
As we already know, during this special condition, MoEC has made the curriculum more relaxed and has given three options to education units: 1) continue to refer to the National Curriculum (Curriculum 2013); 2) use the emergency curriculum; or 3) independently simplify the curriculum.
According to the presentation by the INOVASI’s Coordinator of Pilot and Partnership, Kania Dewi, the first option is absolutely not doable, considering many obstacles that teachers face to date, including teachers handling long-distance learning or commonly known as Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh (PJJ), parents not yet being able to guide their children while studying, students having difficulty concentrating when studying at home, and minimal access to learning resources. All of these obstacles have the potential to cause long term negative impact, such as decreased learning outcomes, violence towards children and the threat of dropping out of school.
“To date, teachers guided by INOVASI in Phase I have independently simplified the curriculum, albeit with various obstacles; thus, with this emergency curriculum, schools can be more guided in implementing learning,” said Kania.
This emergency curriculum, continued Kania, is a simplification of the Basic Competencies referred to the Curriculum 2013 for each subject and focuses on essential competencies and requisites for learning at the next level.
On a similar note, the Secretary of the Education Office of West Sumba regency, Yehuda Malorung, appealed to schools to no longer worry about this curriculum, because the content is not new.
“This emergency curriculum is not something special, because there is nothing new in there. It is more of a simplified learning; thus, schools don’t need to feel that this is something new. However, what we need to learn properly is how to implement this emergency curriculum,” said Yehuda.
This emergency curriculum is expected to ease learning, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kania explained that with this emergency curriculum, teachers have a simple curriculum reference and are not burdened by numerous teaching hours and the demand to complete the curriculum. Moreover, learning is more focused on contextual learning and developing essential competencies. This also applies to students.
A guidebook for parents is also available. This module can be used by parents as a guideline and direction for guiding their children’s learning. All of this simplification is expected to reduce the psychological burden of teachers, students, and parents. “Making this guidebook for parents available for this curriculum shows the importance of their role in the learning process, especially during these times, when children study at home,” explained Kania.
Furthermore, the essential competencies that are referred to here are literacy and numeracy skills. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, these competencies are supplemented with life skills and character education. Emergency conditions such as the current ones require adaptive learning. However, limited resources and technical obstacles affect the full delivery of learning. As such, learning should only focus on the fundamental competencies of literacy and numeracy.
“By mastering literacy and numeracy skills first, any lesson will become easier [for students to understand],” said Kania. In this session, the module design concept for the emergency curriculum was also explained for students, teachers, and also parents.
The attendance rate showed that teachers have high interest in learning more about this emergency curriculum. More than 300 participants were recorded, well over the targeted 50 people per regency. The most participants came from Nagekeo Regency, which accounted for half of the attendees.
This socialization was followed by technical trainings on how to implement the emergency curriculum. These trainings were planned in September 2020 and lasted for six hours, with the following schedule:
Nagekeo regency: 21 September
West Sumba regency: 23 September
Central Sumba regency: 22 September
East Sumba regency: 21 September
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All the learning modules and assessments for the emergency curriculum can be downloaded from MoEC’s website:
https://bersamahadapikorona.kemdikbud.go.id/tingkat-sd-modul-belajar-literasi-numerisasi/
https://bersamahadapikorona.kemdikbud.go.id/modul-asesmen-diagnosis-diawal-pembelajaran/