Recently, one of the famous Muhammadiyah’s schools in Yogyakarta announced a huge shift in their curriculum. Starting this year, the 1st grade students of junior high school don’t need to study social science.
It turns out this move has also fueled new rumors that the Ministry of Higher Education is planning to eliminate several social science and education programs from universities. This has sparked broader public debate. Still, many seem to agree on one point: removing social science from various fields sends a troubling message: that it is no longer considered relevant.
As the world increasingly demands science based expertise, social sciences are often left behind. This shows through several institutions which started to eliminate the social sciences from their curriculum. For example, in 2015, over 50 universities in Japan reduced or eliminated their humanities and social sciences. Last year, it was also reported that the New Zealand government would drop social sciences and humanities from Marsden Fund (New Zealand’s primary government fund for investigator led fundamental research).
From the examples mentioned above, it can be concluded that the idea to abolish social sciences as a subject or even as a study program in universities seems to be increasingly popular. However, social science is a meaningful knowledge that should be taken into account and removing it may cause major problems.
Why Is That?
Even though social science does not produce a tangible product like physics that creates atomic bombs or chemistry that produce medicines, social science does offer something that is just as essential: understanding. Social science helps us navigate the world without premature judgement and by cultivating empathy. Without this understanding, societies risk reproducing myths that disempower people and obscure their capacity to shape social change (Glăveanu, 2025). Social science does not provide a certain answer from an equation. However it uncovers layered problems and dynamic life of the human which contains an empirical truth. It teaches us to question statistics, understand context, and see the people behind the numbers.
Removing it from the first-year curriculum of junior high school, even eliminating it as a university major, could have harmful impacts.
Removing it from early adolescence could be bad because according to Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, individuals aged roughly 12–13 face the stage of identity versus role confusion. At this age, young people begin asking fundamental questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? What do I believe?
Social science provides tools to navigate these questions. It teaches students to understand social norms, inequality, power, culture, and identity. Without this foundation, adolescents may struggle to develop social awareness, ethical reasoning, and empathy skills that are crucial in today’s post truth world.
In 2024, the world was shaken by the Netflix series “Adolescent”. This movie explores how a lot of young boys are intoxicated with the “incel” sub culture through social media, in which one of the ideas is justifying the killing of girls who rejected their love confession. At that time, many were concerned about how parents were going to reinforce or pass down societal norms in the internet driven era as many ideas online are contradicting the norms taught by parents.
Last year, we witnessed a case of a young girl in Malaysia killed because she rejected the perpetrator’s love confession, who at that time was only 14 years old, just like in the netflix series. Those cases happen of course not primarily because the perpetrators who are mostly adolescents do not learn social science. However, this shows how social understanding is crucial for us as a human, and specifically for the young people.
Social science helps students understand more about the human through a social perspective. It offers a critical approach in viewing the society, seeing them emphatically. A just social view which could prevent them from being judgmental or even worse radicalized by certain ideas to do unwanted things just because they don’t understand the norm or human interaction.
What About Eliminating Social Majors in Universities?
Eliminating social science majors in universities could be alarming, not only for the discipline itself but for the broader development of knowledge. A university should be a place where diverse fields are explored and cultivated, not restricted. The government’s industry driven approach is concerning, as it suggests a shift away from nurturing knowledge toward prioritizing profit and economic returns.
This is actually interesting because, if we take a look at the Abbasiyah era, all forms of knowledge were valued as progress. Scholars competed to learn and innovate. While today, with a narrative of social science and STEM dichotomy, we increasingly treat certain fields as unnecessary. And social science, unfortunately treated as if this particular knowledge is not essential anymore, when in reality, both are essential and deeply interconnected.
This issue also reflects a larger problem: universities are increasingly being treated as businesses rather than centers for intellectual development. The PTNBH policy model, for instance, can encourage universities to open programs based primarily on profitability rather than academic needs. In the 21st century, the world seems to lean towards digital realms and AI, social science seems not to have a place to shine or ‘gain profit’.
However, we need to note that throughout history, social science has actually led people to a real societal impact. This is because social science emerged in response to major societal transformations such as the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, and technological advancement. Influential thinkers like Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim laid the intellectual foundations of these disciplines. Their work continues to shape how we understand social structures, resource distribution, and power relations today.
Education Majors? Yup Terminated!
Not only are some social sciences majors rumored to be terminated, education majors are included in the list. Concerns about education majors producing more graduates than the job market can absorb are understandable. However, this issue is less about oversupply and more about systemic failure in teacher recruitment and distribution. Many schools in remote areas still face severe teacher shortages, while regions like Java experience an oversupply.
In 2025, based on the Analisis Beban Kerja (ABK) using Data Pokok Pendidikan (Dapodik) as of December 2024, Indonesia still lacked approximately 374,000 teachers across public schools. At the same time, there were 62,764 surplus civil servant (PNS) teachers and 166,618 surplus non civil servant (non PNS)teachers in certain subject areas.
The real problem, therefore, is not the number of graduates, but the unequal distribution of teachers. Addressing this imbalance would be far more effective than reducing education majors or limiting access to certain fields of study.
Beside that, education majors with its low cost is actually an easy gateway for middle lower people to be educated in uni. Because university is so much more than producing a labor force, but shaping a mindset.
Understanding these ideas, we should be able to see that education is not merely about output. It is not just about how many olympic medals these students can display on the achievement shelf or whether or not they are actually making ‘profit’. The most crucial aspect of education is about forming human beings through human interaction, moral reasoning, and empathy to instill value and social awareness among students. These efforts are done in order to make sure that the next generation are not drawn into harmful ideas.
And fortunately or maybe unfortunately, awareness does not emerge automatically after one meeting. It is learned through guided reflection, discussion, and engagement with society’s complexities. Therefore, consistent exposure and the development of social science is required.
Bigger Impact
Around the world, social sciences have become collateral damage in a far right political drift. As mentioned before, institutions, including universities are eliminating programs, cutting funding, and attacking or discrediting social science scholars. For instance, some social sciences scholars were banned from campus last year because of their Palestine advocacy. This is a worrying sign. Because this is exactly what Block mentioned about a society without social science: it loses a critical oppositional force, one capable of questioning dominant ideologies and holding power accountable (Block, 2019).
A person can be an excellent scientist and still support policies that harm others. Scientific knowledge alone does not guarantee ethical judgement. Even the biggest scientific challenges today, for example, climate change, public health, and technological ethics are social problems which need to be viewed through social science lenses. Science can tell us what is happening, while social science helps explain why people behave as they do and how societies can change.
Even if the norms and societal change is inevitable, that does not mean that social science should be discarded and make the students learn about it themself by dragging them to the realms of the internet or reality without guidance. If we want ethical science, inclusive societies, and responsible citizens, social science must remain a core part of education.
-Afkari Zulaiha R
It turns out this move has also fueled new rumors that the Ministry of Higher Education is planning to eliminate several social science and education programs from universities. This has sparked broader public debate. Still, many seem to agree on one point: removing social science from various fields sends a troubling message: that it is no longer considered relevant.
As the world increasingly demands science based expertise, social sciences are often left behind. This shows through several institutions which started to eliminate the social sciences from their curriculum. For example, in 2015, over 50 universities in Japan reduced or eliminated their humanities and social sciences. Last year, it was also reported that the New Zealand government would drop social sciences and humanities from Marsden Fund (New Zealand’s primary government fund for investigator led fundamental research).
From the examples mentioned above, it can be concluded that the idea to abolish social sciences as a subject or even as a study program in universities seems to be increasingly popular. However, social science is a meaningful knowledge that should be taken into account and removing it may cause major problems.
Why Is That?
Even though social science does not produce a tangible product like physics that creates atomic bombs or chemistry that produce medicines, social science does offer something that is just as essential: understanding. Social science helps us navigate the world without premature judgement and by cultivating empathy. Without this understanding, societies risk reproducing myths that disempower people and obscure their capacity to shape social change (Glăveanu, 2025). Social science does not provide a certain answer from an equation. However it uncovers layered problems and dynamic life of the human which contains an empirical truth. It teaches us to question statistics, understand context, and see the people behind the numbers.
Removing it from the first-year curriculum of junior high school, even eliminating it as a university major, could have harmful impacts.
Removing it from early adolescence could be bad because according to Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, individuals aged roughly 12–13 face the stage of identity versus role confusion. At this age, young people begin asking fundamental questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? What do I believe?
Social science provides tools to navigate these questions. It teaches students to understand social norms, inequality, power, culture, and identity. Without this foundation, adolescents may struggle to develop social awareness, ethical reasoning, and empathy skills that are crucial in today’s post truth world.
In 2024, the world was shaken by the Netflix series “Adolescent”. This movie explores how a lot of young boys are intoxicated with the “incel” sub culture through social media, in which one of the ideas is justifying the killing of girls who rejected their love confession. At that time, many were concerned about how parents were going to reinforce or pass down societal norms in the internet driven era as many ideas online are contradicting the norms taught by parents.
Last year, we witnessed a case of a young girl in Malaysia killed because she rejected the perpetrator’s love confession, who at that time was only 14 years old, just like in the netflix series. Those cases happen of course not primarily because the perpetrators who are mostly adolescents do not learn social science. However, this shows how social understanding is crucial for us as a human, and specifically for the young people.
Social science helps students understand more about the human through a social perspective. It offers a critical approach in viewing the society, seeing them emphatically. A just social view which could prevent them from being judgmental or even worse radicalized by certain ideas to do unwanted things just because they don’t understand the norm or human interaction.
What About Eliminating Social Majors in Universities?
Eliminating social science majors in universities could be alarming, not only for the discipline itself but for the broader development of knowledge. A university should be a place where diverse fields are explored and cultivated, not restricted. The government’s industry driven approach is concerning, as it suggests a shift away from nurturing knowledge toward prioritizing profit and economic returns.
This is actually interesting because, if we take a look at the Abbasiyah era, all forms of knowledge were valued as progress. Scholars competed to learn and innovate. While today, with a narrative of social science and STEM dichotomy, we increasingly treat certain fields as unnecessary. And social science, unfortunately treated as if this particular knowledge is not essential anymore, when in reality, both are essential and deeply interconnected.
This issue also reflects a larger problem: universities are increasingly being treated as businesses rather than centers for intellectual development. The PTNBH policy model, for instance, can encourage universities to open programs based primarily on profitability rather than academic needs. In the 21st century, the world seems to lean towards digital realms and AI, social science seems not to have a place to shine or ‘gain profit’.
However, we need to note that throughout history, social science has actually led people to a real societal impact. This is because social science emerged in response to major societal transformations such as the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, and technological advancement. Influential thinkers like Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim laid the intellectual foundations of these disciplines. Their work continues to shape how we understand social structures, resource distribution, and power relations today.
Education Majors? Yup Terminated!
Not only are some social sciences majors rumored to be terminated, education majors are included in the list. Concerns about education majors producing more graduates than the job market can absorb are understandable. However, this issue is less about oversupply and more about systemic failure in teacher recruitment and distribution. Many schools in remote areas still face severe teacher shortages, while regions like Java experience an oversupply.
In 2025, based on the Analisis Beban Kerja (ABK) using Data Pokok Pendidikan (Dapodik) as of December 2024, Indonesia still lacked approximately 374,000 teachers across public schools. At the same time, there were 62,764 surplus civil servant (PNS) teachers and 166,618 surplus non civil servant (non PNS)teachers in certain subject areas.
The real problem, therefore, is not the number of graduates, but the unequal distribution of teachers. Addressing this imbalance would be far more effective than reducing education majors or limiting access to certain fields of study.
Beside that, education majors with its low cost is actually an easy gateway for middle lower people to be educated in uni. Because university is so much more than producing a labor force, but shaping a mindset.
Understanding these ideas, we should be able to see that education is not merely about output. It is not just about how many olympic medals these students can display on the achievement shelf or whether or not they are actually making ‘profit’. The most crucial aspect of education is about forming human beings through human interaction, moral reasoning, and empathy to instill value and social awareness among students. These efforts are done in order to make sure that the next generation are not drawn into harmful ideas.
And fortunately or maybe unfortunately, awareness does not emerge automatically after one meeting. It is learned through guided reflection, discussion, and engagement with society’s complexities. Therefore, consistent exposure and the development of social science is required.
Bigger Impact
Around the world, social sciences have become collateral damage in a far right political drift. As mentioned before, institutions, including universities are eliminating programs, cutting funding, and attacking or discrediting social science scholars. For instance, some social sciences scholars were banned from campus last year because of their Palestine advocacy. This is a worrying sign. Because this is exactly what Block mentioned about a society without social science: it loses a critical oppositional force, one capable of questioning dominant ideologies and holding power accountable (Block, 2019).
A person can be an excellent scientist and still support policies that harm others. Scientific knowledge alone does not guarantee ethical judgement. Even the biggest scientific challenges today, for example, climate change, public health, and technological ethics are social problems which need to be viewed through social science lenses. Science can tell us what is happening, while social science helps explain why people behave as they do and how societies can change.
Even if the norms and societal change is inevitable, that does not mean that social science should be discarded and make the students learn about it themself by dragging them to the realms of the internet or reality without guidance. If we want ethical science, inclusive societies, and responsible citizens, social science must remain a core part of education.
-Afkari Zulaiha R