Parents shocked by adult content on school worksheet Lutfi Rakhmawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/13/2012 8:38

AM A|A|A| Intan Budi Utoyo, the mother of a second-grade student at SD Angkasa IX private elementary school in East Jakarta, never expected her little girl to blurt out the question: What is a mistress? Intan was helping her 8-year-old daughter Adivia Hana while she was doing homework on Wednesday night when Hana suddenly dropped the question. Intan became even more surprised when she found out that Hana had learned some adult words from her student worksheet (LKS) for her school subject Jakartas Culture and Environment. In the chapter about karma, there is a story about Bang Maman, a native Betawi, who intends to separate his daughter Ijah from Salim, who used to be a rich landlord but went bankrupt. Ijah refuses to separate from Salim. At last, Maman hires another woman to pretend to be Salims mistress to break Ijahs heart. The story is completely inappropriate for children. It is also a bad way to introduce the children to Jakartas culture. They will think that mistresses and divorce are part of it, Intan said. Intan said other parents shared the same concern and had complained to the school board that the book failed to educate their children. The subject is compulsory for students in Jakarta. The Jakarta Post found two worksheets used by second-grade students published by different publishers that contained similar cultural stories. Jakarta Education Agency head Taufik Yudi Mulyanto said that the agency knew nothing about the content of the worksheets. He said the agency had implemented independent school management for all education centers in the city. We let all schools manage their students. We entrust the schools with the authority to choose suitable books for their students. According to Taufik, it was impossible for the agency to monitor all of the books used by all of the schools, so it set guidelines for the schools to choose books that teach good values, promote local wisdom and use proper Indonesian. The publisher should have been aware of its moral duty to transfer only good and useful knowledge. There is no need to include too much drama or conflict in childrens school books, he said. Taufik said that the agency had summoned the schools principal and asked the school to stop using books or worksheets that contained improper reading material. Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh said the case was not under the ministrys responsibility, but added that the case would be investigated. Unlike textbooks, a worksheet is not directly under the education ministrys supervision

but under Puskurbuk, he said Thursday. Puskurbuk, or the Center for Curriculum and Books, is the body under the ministry in charge of examining and filtering schoolbooks. According to Nuh, not only the worksheets creators and publisher but also the principals and the teachers, who allowed the worksheet to be used in their school, would be questioned over the issue. Education expert Darmaningtyas said the incident proved that school material were poorly supervised by schools and the education agency. The education agency should monitor all teaching materials. The agency cannot let the schools decide and choose the books as they please, he said. Darmaningtyas said the Maman and the mistress story was beyond an eight-year-olds ability to fully understand. The teachers should not force students to try to understand that ridiculous story. ( Jakarta Post Wednesday, April 18, 2012 17:21 PM