T

he Culture and Education Ministry has issued a regulation prohibiting the use of school books with unclear authorial credentials and inappropriate content to improve the quality of textbooks.

Minister Anies Baswedan said the ban was issued based on Ministerial Decree No. 8/2016 on standards of textbooks for elementary and junior and senior high schools.

“All schools in the country have to make sure that the books used in schools have comprehensive authorial backgrounds starting from the new academic year,” Anies said. The new school year begins on July 18.

Under the regulation, all books are required to provide complete information regarding their authors, editors, illustrators, reviewers, consultants and evaluators.

The information requires includes full names, academic degrees, educational backgrounds, lists of books written in the past ten years, addresses and social media accounts.

“Contact numbers are important because people are often unable to provide feedback to authors or publishers because their contact details aren’t listed,” Anies said.

Education experts applauded the move as a step toward improving education.

“The regulation will make authors be more responsible about what they write. It will also allow people to clarify the content of the books with the authors,” Paramadina University education expert Totok Amin Soefijanto told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He added that through comments and criticism from readers, content could improve with each successive edition of a textbook.

Education expert Doni Koesoema, who is also an advisor to the Federation of Indonesian teachers Association (FSGI), said over the phone that previously many publishers tried to sell books directly to schools by offering major discounts, leading schools to buy textbooks with little regard for their quality or accuracy.

Besides banning books of unclear provenance, the ministerial decree also bans any books containing themes of racial or gender discrimination or religious violence.

“Many children’s books still have inappropriate content,” Donie said.

Early this year, a textbook entitled Anak Islam Suka Membaca (Muslim Children Like Reading) came into the spotlight for allegedly carrying themes deemed unsuitable for children.

As reported by the Post, the book contained sentences considered to be radical teachings, such as “sahid di medan jihad” (die as a jihadist) and “rela mati bela agama” (willing to die for religion).

It was written by Nurani Musta’in and first published in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1999.

The ministry said that the policy could help prevent the distribution of such books, which promote violence among children.

Beginning this year, the ministry has partnered with the National Procurement Agency (LKPP) to provide textbooks free of charge with funding from school operational funds (BOS). (win)