THE COMPARISON OF 1994 AND CBC or 2004 ELT CURRICULUM APPLIED IN INDONESA

THE COMPARISON OF 1994 AND CBC or 2004 ELT CURRICULUM APPLIED IN INDONESA


The concept of curriculum has been improved along with the improvement of educational theory and practice. A curriculum is a written document which may contain many ingredients, but basically it is a plan for the education of pupils during their enrollment in given school (Beauchamp, 1996: 6). Talking about curriculum, Indonesia has changed its national curriculum several times, namely in 1968, 1975, 1984, 1994 and 2004. The central theme of this article discusses the ELT 1994 curriculum (1999 Supplementary Curriculum) then comparing to the Competence Based Curriculum or 2004 Curriculum for Junior High School in Indonesia. The brief points of characteristic, weaknesses and strengths of both curricula will be discussed in the next items. The last point will be a conclusion of all.
A. THE CHARACTERISTIC OF EACH CURRICULUM
1. 1994 Curriculum
Since 1994, Indonesia has used the 1994 English Language Teaching Curriculum/Guidelines of ELT Program for Junior High School. This curriculum was revised in 1999 and now it is called the Guidelines Supplement for 1994 curriculum.
This curriculum aims at improving students’ ability in English communication, which covers four basic skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). Language elements (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling) are used to support the students’ ability to communicate orally and written in different contexts. The syllabus itself is notional, functional, thematic and structural in nature. The approach is communicative or meaningful and the assessment is integrative.
2. Competence Based or 2004 Curriculum
The competence based curriculum or 2004 curriculum was legitimately applied as a national curriculum in Indonesia. In that time, 2004 curriculum for ELT was used as a trial version in some Junior and Senior High School. This curriculum is a replacement for 1994 curriculum.
ELT competency based curriculum is a systematic and a strategic framework to build up the communicative and discourse competence. This implies that the ELT competency based curriculum helps building up all its supporting components such as linguistic, speech act, socio-cultural, strategic competence and a set of discourse substances.
Hence, we can say that an English Language teacher in teaching the language could not start her or his teaching by asking, “What sort of materials should I teach today?” but rather “What sub-competence should my students acquire today?” In this case, the teacher should start searching any related materials to achieve the objectives or competence assigned from any possible sources.
B. THE WEAKNESSES AND STRENGTHS OF EACH CURRICULUM
Generally, the weaknesses found in 1994 curriculum, namely:
1. The openness of the learning materials structures and organization.
2. The disagreement between the themes and the examples of the communicative expressions
3. The overlapping of some functional skills
4. The lack of clarity of some learning objectives.
All these weaknesses caused this curriculum was revised in 1999 and now it is called the Guidelines Supplement for 1994 curriculum. Four basic skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing) and language elements (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling) used to support the students’ ability to communicate orally and written in different contexts are the strengths of 1994 curriculum. Beside that, the syllabus of this curriculum is notional, functional, thematic and structural in nature. Then it is formulated by communicative or meaningful approach and an integrative assessment.
Different from 1994 curriculum, competence based curriculum or 2004 curriculum in English Language Teaching (ELT) has strength where it is a systematic and a strategic framework to build up the communicative and discourse competence. Therefore, the ELT competency based curriculum helps students building up all its supporting components such as linguistic, speech act, socio-cultural, strategic competence and a set of discourse substances.
Comparing to 1994 curriculum, CBC has some other strengths such us:
1 The time allotment is decreasing.
1. The presentation of the materials is integrated makes it more meaningful.
2. Classroom based assessment and competency based assessment, which means that the assessment should be based on students’ mastery of certain competences according to their types and levels of education.
3. Competent teachers of English, which means that the teachers should improve their basic competences in teaching English all the time.
Observing all these strengths made the government decided to apply this curriculum.
Another point of this CBC is that the orientations or the objectives of this curriculum are still unclear. Therefore, to evaluate the weaknesses of it is only by analyzing its implementation in teaching and learning process. It is because of this curriculum is still on going. Some overview will be discussed next.
C. THE COMPARISON OF BOTH CURRICULA IN ELT
Evaluating all the weaknesses and the strengths, we may be able to compare between these two curricula, 1994 and 2004 curriculum by analyzing that vividly, the 1994 curriculum in practice has some weaknesses as follows:
1. That the time has been spent on particular objectives is not enough to complete all themes in teaching and learning process.
2. The placement tests have not placed students at the right level in the program.
3. The English textbook received is inadequate for students.
4. The methodology of teachers are using is not appropriate.
5. Teachers or students have difficulties with any aspect of the course.
6. Students are not enjoying the program.
7. Students sometimes do not get sufficient practice work.
8. The pacing of the material is not adequate
Of all the weaknesses of 1994 curriculum, it has been a consideration from the government especially DEPDIKNAS to change this curriculum to the new curriculum, 2004 curriculum. The problem is that a new improvement in ELT in Indonesia after the curriculum change. The 2004 ELT curriculum has some strong points. In the first place, this curriculum accommodates individual characteristics. For those who are able to learn fast do not have to adjust their learning to the slow learners. Each student has their own learning pace and for that reason, the slow learners can adjust their learning pace by joining tutorial classes and remedial teaching. This is due to the characteristic of CBC of its mastery learning.
Beside that, the objectivity of the assessment is relatively guaranteed. Teachers should not do any illegal actions only to enable their students to pass the grade. Teachers should not be reluctant to give low marks for those who have low competence. They still have chances to improve their ability through remedial teaching, even if they have passed to the next grade.
However, this curriculum is not without problems. Firstly, we realize that many teachers are not instantly giving their students learning evaluation as soon as a competence or a sub-competence is completed. As a result, we are not able to know exactly which of the students have completed the competence or sub-competence and which of them have not. This situation is more or less interrupting the mastery learning principle.