English Curriculum History in Indonesia

Since 1900-1941 English teaching had been taught to students in the meer uitgebreid lager onderwijs (MULO, or junior secondary schools) as a compulsory subject for three to four classes a week in Indonesia. The teaching of English at this time was successful in the sense that many of the MULO graduates could speak, read, and write good English. One reason for the success was the small number of students in the classroom, as only children from families with a middleand upper-class social status that were allowed to go to school (Sadtono, 1997 cited in Braine 2005: 71-72). According to Thomas (1968) in early 1942, Japanese arimies extruded the Dutch, and removed the Dutch or English teaching in Indonesia. They burned books and other materials which is written in Dutch or English. At the same time, they then introduced Japanese language and preserving the Malay Language then called Bahasa Indonesia (Braine, 2005: 72). Japanese language and Bahasa Indonesia were taught intensively till around 1944. When the Independence of Republic Indonesia was proclaimed on 17 August 1945 by Soekarno and Hatta, Bahasa Indonesia has been declared as a national language according to 1945 constitutions chapter XV, articles 36. At the same time, English has been chosen as first foreign language that taught for Indonesians after proclamation (Huda cited in Braine, 2005: 72). Despite the fact the decision makers at that time had been educated in Dutch language schools. Mr. Frits Wachendorff, a Dutchman who remained in Indonesia, was appointed to be head of the Center for Teaching English Language Inspectorate at the Ministry of Education. He first spelled out the objective of TEFL in Indonesia: English was to be a foreign language and it was not and would never be either a social language or a second official language in Indonesia (Sadtono, 1997 citied in Braine, 2005: 72). This is the first time, the English teaching introduced as foreign language officially about 1950. From 1950-1953 English teaching met at least two major problems, they are the shortage qualified teachers and inadequate availability instructional materials. Finally to solve the first problem, the second year students in university of any major are recruited to be an English teachers in secondary schools. And in 1954, Standard Training Centres (STC) were established in Jogjakarta (Central Java) and Bukittinggi (Andalas), with the aim of producing more qualified English teachers. The students were taught English literature in addition to the English language itself (Thomas, 1968 cited in Braine, 2005: 73). During 1954-1973 many English programs then being institutions had been established such as perguruan tinggi pendidikan guru then became FKIP. The faculty of teacher training and education was set up in Malang, Bandung and Batusangkar now known as Universitas Negeri Malang (UNM), Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) and Universitas Andalas (UNAD). And an association called Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN) was launched in 1973 at Gajah Mada University in Jogjakarta. Then two years later the curriculum was standarized namely curriculum 1975. The curriculum 1975 updated in 1984 and 1994. By 1984, the revised curriculum for English in secondary schools had adopted the communicative approach with an emphasis on the development of speaking skills. However, the practice did not reflect the communicative learning (Dardjowidjojo, 2000). Therefore, although the four skills remained as the targets for learning, the order of priority was changed to reading as the most important, then listening, writing and speaking. Ten years later, in 1994, the Ministry of Education produced new curriculum to revise 1984. It is still communicatively oriented, but the official term was the meaning-based curriculum (meaningful approach) (Dardjowidjojo, 2000). The significant feature of the new syllabus is the integration of language components and language skills. Unlike the 1984 syllabus, in which language skills and language components structure, vocabulary, and spelling were taught separately, the 1994 syllabus integrates them in the form of themes. Thus, themes are the central components that tie language components and language skills together. In addition, the syllabus also contains recommended topics derived from the listed themes, functional skills to be developed, examples of communicative expressions, and lists of vocabulary items to be taught. The teachers are then free to design their own instructional materials for classroom teaching. After being used for a few years, the curriculum was found to have three major weaknesses: some communicative expressions were not in line with the theme, several functional skills overlapped, and a number of the stated teaching objectives were vague. In response, a slight revision of the syllabus was carried out in 2000 (Ministry of National Education, 2000). After 1994 curriculum had been implemented for about 8 years, the government changed the curriculum named Curriculum Based Competency (CBC). This curriculum implemented 2004. As it names CBC was designed to on the basis of what the students can do in performing taks rather than what they known about the tasks. A student is said to be competent or to have competency if he or she has specific skills and knowledge for require for evectively performing a real life task. For instance, if a student is able to respond appropriately to his friends’ letter of invitation in writing, he can be said to have the competency required for writing informal letter (Setiono, 2004). And then, the curriculum had been changed again, the next curriculum was KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan), this curriculum is a continuation of the CBC. In 2006 through regulation of Minister of National Education (Permendiknas) No. 22/2006 on education content standards and Permendiknas No.23/2006 on graduation competency standards, drove the emergence of the Education Unit Level Curriculum (KTSP) or curriculum 2006. Each unity of primary and secondary school are given opportunities to develop and establish KTSP. And the newest curriculum is curriculum 2013, The difference between Curriculum 2013 and the Education Unit Level Curriculum are located on the competence aspect of knowledge. Curriculum 2013 puts attitude on the higher priority than skill competencies and knowledge. So, it says that English, Social Science, and Science subject will be removed from the subject list for elementary school; Social Science and Science will be intergrated in other subjects, such as Indonesian Language, whereas English can be learned as an extra-curricular subject. The several changes of English curriculum are influenced by politic, economic and language theories which is developing in every phase of the changes. The changes of curriculum above indicates the long history about English teachig practice in Indonesia. Now the question is, are the English education systems growing up?. This question will be the main point of this paper. This paper will describe the English teaching practice especially in Gorontalo city. The description will be, students and teachers English competences, students and teachers English motivation, environments, curriculum used, teaching and learning sources, English policy, class arrangement, method, tehnique or approach used in English learning, English facilities, and English valuations. aLVONs