Coding and AI in Schools: Compulsory or Elective?

Koding dan Kecerdasan Artifisial (KKA — Coding and Artificial Intelligence) is not a compulsory subject. Its status is optional, and it has so far reached only some year groups. Under Permendikdasmen No. 13 of 2025, KKA enters the curriculum as an elective subject from the 2025/2026 school year, in stages: so far only Year 5 of SD, Year 7 of SMP, and Year 10 of SMA/SMK are covered. Years 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 follow in the years after.

If your child's school is not teaching KKA at all, that is not a sign the school is behind. Those are simply the rules, and this is what parents most often misunderstand since the news was widely discussed in mid-2025.

The Legal Basis: Permendikdasmen 13/2025

The regulation was issued by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (Kemendikdasmen) as an amendment to the curriculum provisions for early childhood, primary, and secondary education. Permendikdasmen 13/2025 is not a wholesale replacement of the curriculum. It reinforces the approach of Kurikulum Merdeka and Kurikulum 2013 through the "Pembelajaran Mendalam" (deep learning) policy. One of its concrete changes: adding Koding dan Kecerdasan Artifisial as a new elective subject, with the aim of strengthening computational thinking and AI literacy from school age.

This is the second year the programme has been running. Media discussion peaked from July 2025, when the regulation was first communicated to schools across Indonesia.

Why It Is "Optional" Rather Than "Compulsory"

Schools have three implementation options, not one fixed format:

1. As a standalone elective subject, with its own slot on the timetable.
2. Integrated into an existing subject, for example Informatics or Mathematics.
3. Run as an extracurricular activity, outside core teaching hours.

Which option a school takes depends on its own readiness: whether it has sufficiently trained teachers, whether it has computers or laptops, and whether the timetable allows it. As a result, two schools in the same city can implement it in genuinely different ways.

Which Year Groups Are Covered and Which Are Not

💡 If your child is in a year group not on this list, their school is genuinely not yet required to run KKA. That does not mean your child has missed out or that the curriculum is wrong.

For a fuller explanation of teaching hours by level, the material covered, and other questions about KKA, our complete guide goes into detail: Coding and Artificial Intelligence Enters the Curriculum: A Parent's Guide.