Abstract
Abstract : There has been a lot of criticism lately of the government’s decision to radically change the elementary school curriculum and reduce it to only six subjects: maths, Indonesian, religious studies, Pancasila, sports and art. However, critics have put forward some very weak arguments and have failed to see how the proposed curriculum would help Indonesia – much more effectively than at present – establish a first-class educational system. One good a priori reason for thinking that the government is right and the critics are wrong is that the proposed curriculum looks very much like the curriculum taught in primary schools in England and universally admired in educational circles throughout the world. The reason why the English primary education is so admired because it wishes for elementary education: to develop children’s sense of wonder and curiosity and encourage critical thinking and creativity through not burdening them with too many set subjects but using the time available to integrate teaching according to various topics. In classes where children are ostensibly learning maths or English or religion or art, they are at the same time being exposed to knowledge of the world around them and of their social and physical environment, a broad understanding of selected periods in history, moral ideas, and an awareness of their own potential. All this occurs in a context where children are learning to take responsibility for their own learning through discovery and enquiry, reading, asking questions, watching video clips, making use of IT resources, libraries and educational classroom aids. Keywords : school-based curriculum, competence-based curriculum, character education, curriculum 2013, comparative contrastive analysis