maman s mahayana - appreciating indonesian literature in schools

8/8/2019 Maman S Mahayana - Appreciating Indonesian Literature in Schools

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Appreciating Indonesian Literature in Schools

Maman S. Mahayana

University of Indonesia

Abstract

The Education Unit Level Curriculum (EULC) gives an opportunity to teachers and

schools to develop their own potentials. However, it should be guaranteed that try-out

and evaluation are part and parcel of this opportunity, especially since it is widely known

that the curriculum has undergone changes ever so often.

The local content as a manifestation of local potentials could be used as a rich source of

teaching materials by teachers and schools in developing their EULC, especially in the

teaching of Indonesian language and literature. In addition, composition skills becomecrucial in order to balance the practice of language learning that is based on the mastery

of linguistic knowledge in elementary, secondary and high schools. Students should beencouraged to appreciate literary works rather than to understand concepts around the

works. Through literary appreciation, students can develop mutual respect for each other

regarding their individual opinions about literary works.

Through the EULC, both students and teachers freedom and creativity can be developed

since the EULC is not a holy book, but rather, a mere guideline that should be further

interpreted by teachers.

Keywords: appreciating literature, local content, competence standard, compositionwriting.

Are the objectives of teaching Indonesian literature at school in order that thestudents (a) enjoy and take advantages of the literary works to widen their horizon,

improve their behaviour, and increase their knowlefge and language fluency, and (b)

appreciate and be proud of Indonesian literary works as Indonesian cultural possessions

and intectuality,1 or obtain the knowledge (a) of literary works with various relatedtheories and (b) of writers names, titles, and generations?

If we refer to the objectives of the Education Unit Level Curriculum (EULC)2,

initially implemented in the academic year of 2006-2007 on the basis of the Regulationof the Ministry of National Education No. 22 and 23/2006 regarding the Content

Standard for Junior and Senior High Schools and Graduation Competence Standard for

such schools, EULC actually gives wider opportunities for the teachers and schools todevelop and improve the competence.3 The educational scope (i.e. life skills) in Indonesia

is, however, unpredictable. The joke saying that changing material means changing

curriculum, which is actually a fact, will not take place anymore. Changing a curriculumto improve the existing Indonesian educational systems which urgently need to be

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improved has actually a wide impact. This also influences the teachers whose jobs are not

only merely delivering knowledge in class but also professional matters. 4 They are in a

very difficult situation because they have not finished completing really demanding tasksand at the same time new others are already listed on their organizers to be completed

soon. Such a condition leads the teachers to be in a great confusion, which will then

affect their students. Another thing related to the curriculum change is that this fact isclosely connected to some other aspects: finance, the attitude and culture (paradigm) of

the teachers suffering from a great shock when they face this reality. The sources of the

problem are usually linked to the curriculum.There are some reasons in connection with curriculum change for the sake of

development and efforts to the improvement of national education quality. For that

reason, we can appreciate the demigods who create national curricula. It would be a wise

way if great understanding of recent EULC were our priority. If there are some problemsof the curriculum which can create further difficult situations for teachers and students,

we could refuse it. However, if it provides great opportunities for teacher development

and qualification, the new curriculum can be tried out for a certain number of years and

there must a guarantee that this will be evaluated some time.

***If we have a look at each content of Competence Standard and Basic Competence

of EULC, all in the curriculum look acceptable as the two previous curricula: the 1994

Curriculum and Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC, 2004).5 All have great ideas with

promising thoughts and dreams for teachers and students. These dreams in the curriculaare designed by those who are in the top official ranks in the government syatem and

assigned to create such a system of in-depth teaching material elements to be

implemented in all educational levels but these people have never experienced teachingthe materials. In the curriculla, there is also a list of book titles which are difficult to be

found in the market or not available at school or books which are only the ones that

certain publishers have published and distributed through Educational Offices.These as far as I know as a result of having links with the teachers all over

Indonesia are what teachers have been complaining about. They agree that a curriculum

appears to be something that gods have decided and the teachers must implemet it in theirschool without any alternative. They feel intimidated to do so and have no opportunities

to develop their own potentials and the local contents are not accomodated. Then, the

peak of the stress occurs when the National Exam (usually called UN) takes place.6

EULC seems to give all to the teachers and schools. There are some interestingfactors that EULC offers: teachers and schools without the interference of the Heads of

Educational Service Offices. They are given an opportunity to design syllabi, curriculum

and their own indicators and not obliged to use certain books and a certain curriculum. Inthis case, the principle of flexibility leads the teachers and schools to add the number of

teaching hours in accordance with their needs and local contents relevant to the contexts

and situations. In the literary subjects, there are so many local contents, for examplefolks, stories, and short stories in the local newspapers published every Sunday and this

fact leads us to the conclusion that there is no reason for teachers to complain about

teaching materials, because EULCgives a very wide opportunity for teachers and schools

to develop their creativities in accordance with their school needs and local demands.

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The absence of the interference from the Head of the Educational Service Office

regarding the curriculum to teachers and schools results in two contradictory aspects. On

one hand, the teachers and schools have their own authorities to do personal developmentand use any teaching materials which are relevant with their needs. On the other hand,

this freedom demands the teachers to manage and take care of themselves, including the

school management and routine academic activities.7

This fact leads to the condition thateach school develops their own teaching materials and proves that EULC accommodates

local potentials regarding the typical socio-cultural considerations related to their local

students.The only problem that potentially emerges is the one connected to the National

Examination administration which actually shows that the teaching has been so far

oriented to the succees of that exam. The success of teaching activities is usually

associated with the students success on such exams8 and this success is considered theone and only measurement to determine the success of the teachers and schools. 9 In

addition, the test content of the National Examination is used as the only standard and a

general coverage (national) and this indirectly rejects the local contents with the

assumptions that all schools in Indonesia are thought to be closely equal. Theexamination is a cheap mass test with multiple choice models (A, B, C, D or E) which are

not actually effective because this model does not really measure the test takerscompetence. They just choose the best answers although they are not sure about the

correct answers. If their answer happens to be the correct one, the score will be right.

The examination mentioned above can create different matters to different

subjects. For the science, math and social subjects with the test models of true-or-falsechoices, the test models can be applied with relative realibility; for the subjects which

need skill practice and appreciation, for example Indonesian language and literary

teaching materials, such test models can, however, create problems.Therefore, if the examination will be consistently administered, the questions

regarding language skills and literary appreciation must be excluded due to the fact that it

just measures the standard of the national education, but does not determine whether thestudents pass or fail.

***How is EULC implemented in relation with Indonesian language and literature?10

Paying attentions to the contents of Competence Standard and Basic Competence of

Indonesian language for Senior High School (commonly called SMA) and Islamic Senior

High School (MA) at EULC, like those in the two previous curricula (1994 curriculumand Competence Based Curriculum) EULC contents sound full of promising ideas,

idealism and hopes.11 These matters related to teaching Indonesian language and

literature are also reflected.12 If the objectives of Indonesian language teaching are wellachieved, the complaints about learners unability to use Indonesian language well and

about the marginalization of the language from its community from generation to

generation will certainly disappear. This will make the Indonesian generation competentin using the language in oral and written products! These hopes will sound optimistic if

there is information:At the end of SMA/MA education, the learners are able to complete

reading at least 15 literary and non-literary books.13

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The Competence Standard regarding (1) Listening, (2) Speaking, (3) Reading and

(4) Writing in the Basic Competence of Indonesian literature consisting of a range of

36-38 materials in each semester, literary subjects between 16-18 materials soundsproportional despite the absence of the history of literature. 6-8 out of the materials are

related to the theories and knowledge about literature, and others are on appreciation.

Again, if this fact is correctly implemented, the literary appreciation will cause noproblem.

The question of why from year to year despite the changes of curricula there are

still complaints still shows that something wrong has happened. In the 1994 curriculumand the CBC, the problem is always related to the curricula themselves, and the same

thing in connection with the new curriculum can happen. For that reason, there must be

something wrong somewhere.

The basic problem on teaching Indonesian language and literature actually relieson the teachers to teach the theories and knowledge of such subject. It is highly suggested

that if the objectives of teaching Indonesian language and literature are on line with what

are explicitly described in the objectives in teaching Indonesian language and literature,14

the subjects regarding its theories, in particular linguistics, and knowledge should be putaside. This is the main problem for Indonesian language subject as once stated by Sutan

Takdir Alisjahbana. Since the 1930s, the Indonesian language subjects used at schoolswere mostly written by Dutch authors, and this led to the dominance of teaching

linguistics much more rather than how the language is used.15As a result, the teaching of

Indonesian language was not focused on the mastery of skills, but led the learners to be

linguists or language experts. Here is the statement of Mr. Alisjahbana: theGoebernemen schools even still use the method of teaching Indonesian language which

does not help the learners to use the language.16He also states the following idea:

The teaching (of Indonesian language) still focuses on grammar while our great

grandparents still walk on foot and went somewhere by an old-cracked boats. This

discourages people to learn the language. The teaching techniques sound boring, justfilling in the brains without taking care of the childrens spirit. In all aspects, this way

discourages the learners.The textbooks are just merely those elements of linguistics! .

The language which should be taught to be used in day-to-day activities

becomes something taught just for the sake of school purposes.17

In my opinion, the contents of Indonesian linguistics must be replaced by

composition writing through which spelling and punctuations can then be started asclassroom discussions. Isnt it true that anything related to Indonesian linguistics should

not be given to the students of Elementary School, Junior High School and Senior High

School (commonly called SD, SMP, and SMA, respectively), except for those who want

to become linguists?18The same idea can be implented in teaching Indonesian literature. The advantage

of learners knowledge, understanding and memorization about plots, characters, themes,

backgrounds, points of views and language styles can be a big question if the learners donot touch the literary works themselves. Thats a national disaster in teaching Indonesian

education, particularly the subjects of Indonesian literature, if the students are always

spoon-fed with theories and literay concepts, while the literature itself is not touched atall. Actually, the main point of teaching Indonesian language in all levels of education

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should be an instruction that the learners read as many literary works as possible and the

teachers function as moderators in classroom discussions. Therefore, true or false

answers are not valid because the core is to present the reasons underlying the answers.Literature can be poems, short stories, novels, or drama. From the books that the students

have read, the teachers can explain the concepts because the objective of learning is

literary appreciation.The above techniques will lead the students to realize that literary subjects help

them not only do their literary appreciation, but also improve their attitudes to respect

others opinions. Democracy learning has taken place in the classroom, because the trueor false answers are not the focused, but the reasons behind the answers are the important

aspects.

This teaching model leads to certain consequences for the teachers. The model

requires the teachers to select certain good literary works and the contents of the tests(daily and semester tests) which should exclude multiple choice and true-false models

that do not encourage learners to be analytical, but the essay test types, that the teachers

have to correct, that must be frequently exposed. It does not sound useful if language

learning skills (writing and reading) and literary appreciation are evaluated by usingmultiple choices. Isnt it true that teachers and lecturers are professional? It is a must

that they must be professional as teachers.The relevance factor with EULC is already clear! EULC gives wide opportunities

for teachers and learners to develop their own creativities and the main aim of literary

subjects is appreciation.19 A number of literary works, such as traditional literary works,

have been used everywhere in the world, but have not yet been optimally used as learningresources. It is high time the teachers showed their intentions and encouragements to

deliver good literary teaching materials which make learners enjoy the subjects. This can

be implemented because again EULC has given great chances for any partiesinvolved in education to digest Competence Standard and Basic Competence. In EULC

the local contents and materials relevant to the local culture can be used as permitted by

the curriculum.The National Examination is still intimidating everybody, especially the students!

This is a national disaster if the exam is considered as the one and only tool to measure

whether they pass or fail. It will be very much wise if such an exam is used to measure orevaluate in order that we can get a map of the national administration of the educational

outputs.

To conclude, a curriculum is not a sacred book, it is only a guide that teachers can

interpret. Therefore, teachers should adjust the curriculum regarding the local conditions.If the new curriculum, EULC, is consistently implemented, the government is strongly

suggested to create a nationally appropriate test model which is not the only tool to

evaluate the students to pass or fail. However, if the existing policy is well maintained,this spirit undoubtedly contradicts the EULC spirit!

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more independent in choosing language and literature study materials in accordance with the schools and students

codition; (4) parents and society can actively participate in the practice of language and literature programs in schools; (5)

school can arrange an educational program on language and literature under the circumstances of the students andreferences available; (6) the region can decide the materials and sources according to the condition and characteristic of the

region itself but without forgetting the national interest.12 The following are six objectives of Indonesian Language learning: in order that learners can (1) communicate effectively

and efficiently in accordance with agreed ettiquets both in oral and written manners, (2) appreciate and be proud of using

Indonesian Language as the language of unity and the nation, (3) understand Indonesian Language and use it for various

purposes appropriately, (4) use Indonesian Language to develop intellectuality and social-and-emotional maturity, (5) enjoyand take the advantages of literary works to broaden their horizone, soften behaviour and improve knowledge and language

competence, and (6) appreciate and be proud of Indonesian literary as cultural and intellectual properties of Indonesianpeople.13 Several years ago, Taufiq Ismail et al selected compulsory text books such as novels, poem antology, short stories

antology, translated works and essays for Elementary Schools, Junior High School and Senior High Schools (commonly

called SD, SMP, and SMA respectively) in a seminar conducted by Elementary and High Scool Education. Several book

titles --10 coppies of each title-- were proposed to be sent to libraries all over Indonesia. For each SMA, 20-30 out of 50

titles with their writers and publication data were offered. The list of 15 literary books gave an opportunity for publishers to

offer their books despite lower quality books, one of which was a book on Indonesian literary history written and published

by unclear writers and publishers with misleading information within the book. The opportunities to require students toread at least 15 literary and non-literary books at the end of SMA education indirectly leads to some unethical attitudes by

publishers, writers and schools.

14 See the footnotes 11 and 12 again.15 Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana in his review at Poedjangga Baroe, No. 11, Th. II, May 1934, pages 353-356, criticizes the

grammar book by C.A. Mees, Beknopte Maleische Grammatica. It is said that the books is for the Deutch who learned

Malay language. For that reason, it is not appropriate if the book is for Indonesian people.16 Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, Pengadjaran BahasaPoedjangga Baroe, No. 2, Th. I, Agoestoes 1933, page. 33-35.17 Ibid., page. 35.18 The experience of a highschool Indonesian Language teacher in Jakarta can be an example. When he was teaching with a

language unit subject, one of his students asked, Sir, whats the use of ths subject if I am to be working in a bank or acontractor company? Can phonemes and morphemes helps me in counting numbers or calculating benefit and loss?19 In November 2006, I was asked to give a lecture about literature theory and critic in Tunas Harapan Jaya school at Sentul.

The purpose was to make students appreciate the literature works their teachers offered. Before starting the lecture, I asked

a few students to explain concepts like plot, characters, et cetera. They can give the answer fluently. Then I asked them of

the books (novel, short stories, poetry, or drama) they have read. Of this, they can also give a sure answers. Thus, when I

asked how the concepts of plot, characters et cetera was applied in the books they have read, nobody could answer.However when I asked about the destiny of character A in a novel, why he had that kind of ends, what cause it, why the

society in the novel treat him that way, is the background of the event influence the society, is the work interesting or not,why, is there any witness, and so on, turns out a few students can answer scrupulously. There are other students who agree

and disagree to the explanation. There are clashes of argument. Then I said, everybody is right! That is literature

appreciation.

Bibliography

Alishjahbana, Sutan Takdir. 1933. Pengadjaran Bahasa,Poedjangga Baroe, No. 2, Th. I, Agoestoes.Mulyana, E. 2006.Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan, Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya.

maman s mahayana - appreciating indonesian literature in schools

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