The document provides an introduction to the 2013 curriculum (K13) in Indonesia. It discusses the history of curriculum changes in Indonesia, highlighting ten revisions since 1945. It describes rationales for curriculum changes, including addressing future challenges and competencies. The K13 aims to equip students with skills and competencies needed in a changing world. Key differences of the K13 compared to previous curriculums include the inclusion of key competencies (KI-1 to KI-4), use of activity-based and integrated thematic books, application of a scientific teaching approach, and holistic student assessment.

1. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 2013 CURRICULUM
Azhar Aziz Lubis
(azharfbs@gmail.com)
Universitas Negeri Malang
Jl. Semarang 5 Malang 65145, Indonesia
This paper aims to provide brief information about the 2013 Curriculum
(henceforth K13). Accordingly, it starts from history of curriculum changes in Indonesia
and its school of thought to the theory of the K13 and its characteristics in particular.
Introduction
Historically speaking, the genesis of the inclusion of English as one of the school
subjects in Indonesia was as early as 1945, the time when World War II and the
revolution against the Dutch ended (Rahmajanti, 2008). Since then, the Indonesian
government has made a decision to adopt English as the first foreign language taught in
high schools (Kasbolah, 1988 as quoted by Rahmajanti, 2008). To date, such a
curriculum has changed ten times since the Independence Day of Indonesia namely
Curriculum 1945, Curriculum 1964, Curriculum 1968, Curriculum 1973 (PPSP),
Curriculum 1975, Curriculum 1984, Curriculum 1994, Curriculum 1999, Competence
Based Curriculum 2004 (KBK), School Based Curriculum 2006 (KTSP), and the K13
(Widyastono, 2014).
Changes of curriculum previously are due to several rationales, and the most
pivotal reason of all is suitability. Every curriculum is suitable for its era, and is
adversely affected by its school of thought’s era. The teaching of English in Curriculum
1945, for instance, adopted behaviorism school of thought. As a result, the activity in
the classroom is devoted to students’ memorization only. However, the teaching of

2. English in the K13, which applied Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
approach, has a more meaningful interaction. Thus, to implement this curriculum,
teachers need to expose their students to a more scientific way of thinking (e.g.
observing, questioning, experimenting, associating, and networking).
Rationale behind Curriculum Changes
In accordance with the brief history of curriculum changes in Indonesia previously, it is
therefore necessary to scrutinize the main reasons particularly for the K13. Generally,
the main rationales behind curriculum changes fall into twofold, namely future
challenges, and future competences (Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2014).
The former refers to global issues such as AFTA, ASEAN Community, APEC, WTO,
and technological advances, whereas the latter refers to necessary competences in
communication, critical thinking, and being a responsible citizen (ibid).
According to Widyastono (2014), the development of the K13 is due to internal
and external challenges. The former refers to a rapid growth of human population in the
future, whereas the latter refers to the advance of knowledge and technology, culture,
and education globally. In terms of internal challenges, it is predicted that the rapidity of
productive Indonesian people growth will start from 2020 to 2035 (ibid). Therefore, it is
imperative to equip students of the day with skills and competences through a holistic
education. The holistic education means that the curriculum of the country should
provide and equip students with knowledge, skills, attitude and social competences
necessary for their future.
Further, in terms of external challenges, the development of the K13 aims to
persist in global changes of knowledge and technology, culture, and education.

3. Therefore, not only will the curriculum provide students’ needs in the future, but also it
should make sure that the materials delivered to the students are in the same level as
what have been learned globally. In conclusion, the materials taught to the students
should be consistent with the advance of prevailing knowledge, science, technology,
and culture.
However, the SBC and CBC have no functions as strong as the K13. This is
apparent from a study by Sulistyo (2013) stating that in terms of reading skills,
including math and science, Indonesian students rank 55 out of the 65 participants
according to the assessment made by the Program for International Student Assessment
(PISA) 2009. Additionally, ninety-five percent of Indonesian students are able to
answer moderate questions, whereas most of Taiwan students (50%) are able to answer
the advance and difficult questions (Mendikbud, 2013 in Widyastono, 2014). To sum
up, it can be concluded that the previous curricula (SBC & CBC) do not equip students
with such appropriate materials.
The 2013 Curriculum
Basically, the rationale behind the launch of the K13 was in accordance with the two
presidential decrees namely No. 5/2010 about the National Midterm Growth Planning
(RPJMN 2010-2014) and No. 32/2013 (as revision series of No. 19/2005) about
National Standard of Education (Widyastono, 2014). As a result, the K13 is different
from the two previous curricula— School Based Curriculum and Competence Based
Curriculum (henceforth SBC and CBC) — mainly in terms of concept, book, teaching
and learning process, and assessment (Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2014),
and each of which is described further in the following.

4. First, what makes the K13 different in terms of concept is the inclusion of key
competences (Kompetensi Inti), namely KI-1 (attitude), KI-2 (social), KI-3
(knowledge), and KI-4 (skill) (Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2014). This
intends to balance between hard skills and soft skills. The former refers to knowledge
obtained in the class, whereas the latter refers to attitude and social competences in
reality. In addition to that, the government of Indonesia in turn has decreed this concept
to the regulation No. 81A/2013 about the implementation of the K13.
Second, the K13 is different from the two previous curricula—SBC and CBC—
in terms of books. The books employed in the K13 are devoted to activity based and
integrated thematic (Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2014). Activity based
means that the materials are compiled based on the nature of learning a language
starting from receptive to productive (listening to speaking, and reading to writing), and
each of which has a meaningful activity. However, the activity-based books previously
are devoted only to students of junior and senior high. For elementary students, the
books employed are integrated thematic meaning that the topic has a meaningful theme
to teach. Therefore, elementary students will not be burdened with huge of tasks.
Third, another factor distinguishing between the K13 and the SBC & CBC is in
terms of teaching and learning activity. The teaching and learning activity in the K13
applies the so-called scientific approach. This outstanding approach encourages students
to arrive at the knowledge scientifically by observing, questioning, experimenting,
associating, and networking. This being the case, teachers need to trigger their students,
and the teachers might not take for granted that their teaching activity has been run
interactively, scientifically and meaningfully without assessing students’ through key
competences (KI-1, KI-2, KI-3, and KI-4). Therefore, in order to apply such an

5. approach, the teachers should well aware of the concept about key competences in the
K13, otherwise, the teaching and learning activity remains in vain.
Finally, the K13 and the SBC & CBC are different in terms of assessment. In the
K13, students are assessed holistically (attitude, social, knowledge, and skills), whereas
in the two previous curricula (SBC and CBC) students are assessed only in
knowledgeable terms. As a result, most of students misbehave after finishing national
examination such as involving in anarchy activities, juvenile delinquencies, drugs, etc.
This condition, therefore, leads the government to the inclusion of assessing key
competences (KI-1, KI-2, KI-3 and KI- 4) holistically in the students’ progress report.
Scientific Approach
According to the Ministry of Education and Culture (2014), the K13 applies scientific
approach as its ways of teaching and learning activity. This approach has five ways of
thinking to arrive at the truth (knowledge) namely observing, questioning,
experimenting, associating, and networking (ibid), and each of which is elucidated in
the following.
Observing acts as the first phase in the teaching and learning activity. This refers
mainly to the introduction of the activity such as greeting and motivating students
before learning. By doing such and such, teachers can see clearly students’ level of
strength in learning.
The second phase is devoted to questioning. In this phase, students ask questions
about what have not understood previously. This intends to gain additional information
of the observable object as well. Therefore, students are encouraged to raise questions

6. as many as they need. In addition, this phase aims to develop students’ creativity,
curiosity, and ability in formulating questions.
In the field of experimenting, thirdly, students are encouraged to gain more
information not only in the class but also outside it. This can be done through reading
another source other than textbook, observing objects/events and activities, and
conducting an interview. This phase aims to develop students’ positive attitude
(honesty, carefulness, open-mindedness, and politeness), develop students ability to
communicate, develop students’’ ability to gain information as well as their learning
habit.
The fourth phase of the scientific approach is associating. This mainly falls into
twofold: inductive and deductive. In this phase, students are encouraged to conclude
what they have gained with the reality inductively (specific to general) as well as
deductively (general to specific). Therefore, in the realm of teaching, this phase is
devoted to identifying as well as comparing social function, text structures, and
language aspects.
Eventually, the last facet of the scientific approach is networking. In this phase,
the teacher acts as a mediator and/or manager promoting collaborative learning, and
sharing between them. In conclusion, this phase is devoted to actualizing the knowledge
to the present.

7. References
Konsep dan Implementasi Kurikulum 2013: Paparan Wakil Menteri Pendidikan dan
Kebudayaan RI bidang Pendidikan. 2014. Jakarta: Kementrian Pendidikan dan
Kebudayaan
Rahmajanti, S. 2008. Impact of English Instruction at the Elementary Schools.
TEFLIN Journal, (Online). 19(2): 160-185, (http://jurnal-
online.um.ac.id/data/artikel), retrieved on October 29, 2015.
Sulistyo, G.H. 2013. Assessing Non-English Department Students’ Mastery of
Academic Content Area Reading. Jurnal Ilmu Pendidikan, 19(1): 36-49.
Widyastono, H. 2014. Pengembangan Kurikulum di Era Otonomi Daerah: dari
Kurikulum 2004, 2006, ke kurikulum 2013. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara.