Discussion Text : Giving Children Homework

There are a lot of discussion as to whether children should be given homework or not.
Is it enough for children having time to study at school or needing additional time in home
for study after school time?

Some people claim that children do enough work in school already. They also argue
that children have their hobbies which they want to do after school, such as sport or music. A
further point they make is that a lot of homeworks are pointless and does not help the
children learn at all.

However, there are also strong arguments against this point of view. Parents and
teachers argue that it is important to find out whether children can work on their own without
the support from the teacher. They say that the evening is a good time for children to sit down
and think about what they have learned in school.

Furthermore they claim that the school day is too short to get anything done. It makes
sense to send home tasks like independent reading or further writing task which do not need
the teacher support.

I think, on balance, that some homework is good idea but that should only given at the
weekend when children have more time.
 Discussion Text : Pros and Cons of Curriculum 2013

Curriculum 2013 started to be implented on the school academic year 2013/2014.

Although it has been officially used but the latest curriculum is still still raising the pros and
cons among educational practitioners.

Those who support it state that Curriculum 2013 is actually aiming to solidify the
lessons so it does not burden the students. As a result, students will focus on the challenges of
the future of the nation. So also with the teachers, they are not burdened in the preparation of
the Education Unit Level Curriculum.

Further Curriculum 2013 itself is actually not something new. Curriculum 2013 is a
combination of two kinds of earlier educational curriculum in Indonesia; CBSA (active
student learning) and KTSP (education level curriculum). It is very advategeous as CBSA
teaches students to be critical.

Conversely, those who do not agree with Curriculum 2013 state the new curriculum is
less focus because it combines the learning subjects. In primary school it combines science
subjects with Indonesian. According to them combining two subjects into one material may
not be effective as it does not consider teachers competences in most of schools in different
regions in Indonesia.

Some parents also do not aggree with Curriculum 2013 as they still want that English
is given to students from primary school. They argue that mastering foreign language need
long time and prcess and it is good if statred from earlier. They added that many sources of
common knowledges is written in foreign language, especially English.

The reason for the application of Curriculum 2013 also does not have a strong
foundation. There is no in-depth study of the causes of the failure of previous curriculum
which makes it to be replaced with the new one

Finally the pros and cons are always there. Curriculum 2013 has been already
implemented. Will this new curriculum successfully lead education in Indonesia to move
forward? Were all going to see it.