Govt told to insert character education in curriculum

Jakarta, NU Online
Member of the House of Representatives' Commission X Reni Marlinawati has argued that the government should start evaluating the national education curriculum so as to contain elements of character development.<>

"The government should be aware that the recent students' brawls were caused by the lack of character development element in our national education curriculum," Marlinawati said here on Friday (12/10).

She also said that there must be total improvement in the national education system to reinforce good character in students.

"They tend to fight and engage in violence easily. It is due to a lack of character building programmes in schools," she added.

Marlinawati expressed regret over the recent student brawl in Makassar State University (UNM) that left two dead and dozens injured.

"It was very tragic. That incident was just the latest in a growing list of recent student brawls in Indonesia," she said, adding information about a brawl in Jakarta some time ago that also led to the deaths of two students.

Therefore, Marlinawati urged the government to handle the student brawls through the role of the ministry of education.

She stated that the ministry of education should review and overhaul the current education system and introduce a new system that focuses adequately on character building.

Marlinawati charged that the ministry of education failed to respond to and deal with student brawl cases.

"Until now, we have not seen a comprehensive response from the government. They do not take precautions while dealing with students` brawls and only act when there is an incident, "she argued.

Furthermore, she expected the ministry of education to start conducting a thorough evaluation and transformation of the national education curriculum and system.

"From what I see these days, our education system focuses too much on formal and academic matters. We have no character building and moral education," Marlinawati said.

Therefore, she implored the ministry of education to include moral education in schools` curriculum, either as a stand-alone lesson or integrated with other lessons.

Editor : Sudarto Murtaufiq