REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SANUR -- The Indonesian government has distributed 40 million copies of 2013 curriculum textbooks (K-13) to schools across the country since July 1 this year, an Education and Culture Ministry official said.
"We have distributed 40 million textbooks which comprised 150 titles," Secretary General of the Education and Culture Ministry, Didik Suhardi, informed here on Saturday.
He asked the schools which have received the 2013 curriculum textbooks from the government for academic year 2016, to make optimum use of these to teach students.
If schools have not received the textbooks, their teachers will be allowed to use other reference books according to the directives of the central government.
"In the next learning system, teachers will decide what textbooks will be used for K-13," he noted.
If schools use operational fund assistance to buy textbooks, they should use online shops to make the textbook purchase transactions transparent and accountable, he added.
In addition, if schools must buy textbooks, the government should draw up a proposal, while the plan to auction should be transferred to the institution for formulating a policy to procure goods/services as per the existing rules, he explained.
To produce the books, the government is cooperating with 10 printing companies, he disclosed.