Thousands of E-Books Downloaded from Indonesia Education Ministry`s Website

Cianjur, West Java (Antara Bali) - Nearly 450 thousand e-books of the 2013 national curriculum had been downloaded from the ministrys website, Education and Culture Minister, Muhammad Nuh, said, Saturday.

The report on the number of books downloaded was updated in the last two days, Muhammad said to the press at the Cipanas Presidential Palace, in Cianjur, West Java.

In order to regulate the 2013 education curriculum, the ministry also distributed the textbooks and handbooks in CDs to the schools throughout the country.

The books in CD format will help teachers and students who have no access to the Internet, and they also can copy all the printed materials, Muhammad said.

The distribution of the 2013 curriculum books had just reached 70 percent which caused problems to the provider, Deputy Education Minister, Musliar Kasim, had said earlier in Jakarta on Thursday (Aug 7).

The long vacation had also hampered the distribution along with the ministrys policy banning the sale of 2013 curriculum books, Musliar added.

"Dont buy, these books are give to the students for free," he said.

Besides the e-books, the Education and Culture Ministry also printed 245 million books to be distributed to schools all over Indonesia.

The schools are also not allowed to ask students to pay for the books since the printing cost has been included to education budget.

Through the 2013 national curriculum, the government expected the improvement of graduates soft skills, including communication ability and emotional intelligence, to complement the traditional knowledge they are already obtaining through the education system. (WDY)