The Alumni Association of the Indonesian Education University Commissariat of the Department of Historical Education (IKA Education History UPI) urged the Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Anwar Makarim to make history a mandatory subject at all levels of education, including SMA, SMK, MA, and MAK.
This urge is in response to the different drafts of curriculum simplification that the team formed by Minister Nadiem is currently working on. History is only part of Social Sciences in class X and is an elective subject in grades XI and XII. Even in SMK, there is no history subject.
“We firmly reject the reduction of history subjects as stated in the curriculum simplification plan. On the contrary, we demand the return of history as a compulsory subject at all levels of secondary education: SMA/SMK/MA/MAK,” said the Head of the UPI History Education IKA, Prof. Dadan Wildan, in a press release received by LiterasiNews, Saturday, September 19, 2020.
The statement of attitude is part of the attitude of the UPI History Education IKA as outlined in a letter sent to Minister Nadiem. His party also urged Minister Nadiem to evaluate the curriculum simplification process carried out by non-governmental institutions and return the approach to the Research and Development Agency (Balitbang) of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Balitbang Kemendikbud is an official body under the Ministry of Education and Culture following its duties and functions. Instead, this historian, who is a member of the author of the West Java History book, asked the Ministry of Education and Culture to involve education experts and curriculum developers from academic staff education institutions (LPTK), practitioners, professional associations, and study program associations in the curriculum simplification process,” he stressed.
Dadan emphasized that the demands submitted to the Minister of Education and Culture were not merely the aspirations of UPI History Education alumni but the results of an in-depth study in a webinar held on Thursday, September 17, 2020.
The webinar results from collaboration with the Indonesian History Teachers Association (AGSI), the National Social Sciences Teacher Communication Forum, and the Association of Indonesian History Education Study Programs (P3SI).
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