The Indonesian government is set to omit the English language as a subject from primary school education as part of a curriculum overhaul to come into effect next year, reported the Jakarta Post on Thursday.

According to Deputy Education and Culture Minister Musliar Kaslim, the move was necessary to allow students to master the Indonesian language first before learning other foreign languages.

"Elementary schools won't have English lessons because [students] haven't even learned to understand the Indonesian language yet," Kaslim said, as cited by the Jakarta Post.

"Now, even some kindergarten students take English courses. I pity the kids," he added.

The move also comes just a week after the Indonesian Education Ministry had announced its decision to scrap natural science and social sciences from primary school education as "it is too early to teach such hard subjects to the students."

"It is not good to imitate the Western education system in a way that would kill our Indonesian values. We don't just need experts in physics and mathematics, but people who understand human values," told Dedi Gumelar, a member of "Commission X" at the House of Representatives, at the time to the Jakarta Globe.

"In elementary school we need to teach them more about good character, the values of state ideology Pancasila, culture, and ethics... teach them about sciences, such as geography and social sciences, at a later stage, like when they are at the junior high level. And then at the senior high level, teach them other subjects that prepare them to enter university," he said.

"It is easier to produce smart scholars than to produce scholars with good character and integrity, people who have nationalism and good morals," he later theorised.

Unsurprisingly though, the decision has been met with a wave of criticism from the public, who worry that Indonesia would lag even further behind other nations in educational standards.

"Elementary school is a golden-age period for teaching students science according to their absorption ability," told educational observer Darmaningtyas to the Jakarta Globe.

Muzaini, a headmaster of an elementary school in Central Java, also said that at students should be trained to think critically and objectively from an early age.

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Deputy Education and Culture Minister Musliar Kaslim told the Jakarta Post that the education ministry also has plans to trim existing primary school subjects into six topics, namely religion, Indonesian language, civics education, arts and skills, physical education and general knowledge.

Kaslim insisted that science and social studies would not be removed completely from the new curriculum, but rather incorporated into other subjects, such as Indonesian language.

As for the English language however, Kaslim admitted that it would be "definitely forbidden" for public schools, though the ministry has not decided on whether to implement similar regulations on international schools and private schools.

The Indonesian economy was recently forecasted, by a McKinsey & Co. report, to become the world's seventh largest economy by 2030. Presently Indonesia has the world's fourth largest population and the world's 16th largest economy.

The authors of the McKinsey report however noted that the country had to overcome the chronic protectionism, over-regulation and poor transport infrastructure in order to meet its economic potential.

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