Independent Curriculum at school

Hi friends who love education, I wish you good health and success always. In this post I will share about the independent curriculum implemented by the government in schools in order to create human beings with character in accordance with the times.

The success of a system to run education in schools really needs the support of all elements, especially school residents, in the sense that all elements within the school environment must participate in programs that have been designed in running the system to achieve success. that is what should be done when the government through the ministry of education implements an independent curriculum.

Along with the development and progress of a country, it can be ascertained that there are changes in all aspects to compensate for increasingly fierce competition including education. Talking about the realm of education in Indonesia has experienced various changes, one of which is a change in curriculum. The curriculum is a unity of the planning system and setting of learning material that can be used as a guideline in teaching and learning activities where all parties involved and directly related to the curriculum function are required to understand it. The application of the independent curriculum in the school environment is a government effort to restore learning. This is motivated by the learning loss during the pandemic period. Mandiri curriculum learning can be done through project activities that can provide broader opportunities to students to be more actively explore actual issues, such as environment, health, and other issues to support character development. Mandiri curriculum is a curriculum with diverse learning where the provision of content is carried out optimally so that students have sufficient time to understand the concept and strengthen competence. In addition, the teacher also has the freedom to choose a variety of teaching devices so that learning activities can be tailored to the needs and interest of students. This curriculum is defined as a learning design that provides opportunities for students to learn calmly, relaxed, fun, reduce stress loads and learning pressure to show their natural talents. The focus of self-learning curriculum is freedom and creative thinking.

on the other hand an independent curriculum, apart from focusing on authentic student learning outcomes, the acceleration of digitization is also an obstacle, because during the pandemic conditions teachers, students, and schools still have difficulty adjusting to digital conditions, such as the level of stability in accessing the internet. inadequate facilities and infrastructure in schools, the ability of teachers, students, and schools to use ICT tools, and so on so that there are still many schools that are still not ready and shocked by these changes. Not only that, the training time provided for the Motivating School Program is only short so that its implementation seems rushed and not optimal because there are still many teachers who do not really understand the essence of the latest curriculum.

For the high school level, the application of the independent curriculum is no longer in the category of majors such as science, social studies, or language. In addition, at the high school level, students are also given the opportunity to choose the subjects they are interested in according to their talents and personalities.
The existence of the latest policy on the independent curriculum at the high school level will certainly be the latest breakthrough in the world of education. Furthermore, students can choose the subjects they are interested in.

As an example.
The student, named Ela, plans to study at the medical faculty, so that in grades 11 and 12, Ela is the first to continue studying compulsory general subject groups such as Religious Education, PKN, Indonesian, English, Mathematics, Art, Physical. Education, and History.
However, for science and social studies subjects, students can choose as in the MIPA group, Ela chooses biology and chemistry subjects because these subjects are related to the expected faculty.
In this case, Ela may choose physics or not because it does not suit her interests.

In addition, Ela can also take sociology lessons which are usually in the Social Sciences department.t.
Not only that, Ela is also allowed not to choose economics or geography subjects if it doesn't suit her interests.
In another context, the example is a student named Wali who is still considering whether he will study in business or civil engineering.

So, at the 11th and 12th grades, the Guardians still received the same compulsory subjects as Ela.
It's just that in the subjects of his choice between business or civil engineering, in the science group, he enters the physics and mathematics subjects of specialization.
Then from the Social Studies subject group, the Guardian did not choose sociology but he chose economics subjects that were related to the business department.
If in the 2013 curriculum, students who enter the science major are required to study biology, chemistry, and physics.
Unlike the case in an independent curriculum, all these subjects are not required or can choose according to their respective interests.

In accordance with the explanation above, the Independent Learning Curriculum is a new curriculum in the education system in Indonesia. So that makes many people still misunderstand in its application in learning in the classroom. for example :

• Learning Administration
  Often occurs in the application of the Independent Curriculum, which is related to learning administration, especially in the aspect of teaching modules. Many people still misunderstand or do not understand the format of teaching modules that can be used in implementing the Independent Curriculum.
  Actually, to get the teaching modules that will be used in the Independent Curriculum, the government has provided. All of this can be accessed through the Merdeka Mengajar platform which can be downloaded by each teacher via their smartphone. The platform contains a lot of teaching module content so that teachers can learn independently from there, and look for referencesa.
  Mybe many teachers are still confused after learning about the format of teaching modules through the platform. Actually, teachers do not need to be confused with the format of the teaching module that will be used. The reason is, the format of the teaching modules in the Independent Curriculum can be adjusted to the needs of each school, so that the teaching modules do not have to be the same as those of other teachers. Different needs, different teaching modules used, all can be adapted to the applied curriculum.

• Student Learning Needs.
  There are teachers who still have the view that every student in the same class has the same needs. However, each student has their own uniqueness. This means that each student has their own potential. So that it requires teachers to understand it in the implementation of the Independent Curriculum that will be carried out.
  Seeing this fact, every teacher who will apply the Independent Curriculum must be able to explore and recognize the character of their students. With the differences in the potential of existing students, the teacher is required to provide different treatment.
  There are teachers who still have the view that every student in the same class has the same needs. However, each student has their own uniqueness. This means that each student has their own potential. So that it requires teachers to understand it in the implementation of the Independent Curriculum that will be carried out.

Response.

• The teacher of Uswatun Hasanah High School, Tanah Pasir sub-district, North Aceh revealed, in the past when teaching teachers were shackled with minimum graduation criteria, while in the Merdeka Curriculum he felt that teachers really appreciated the process and student achievements in learning. Teachers are more flexible to be creative in teaching as much as possible, he said excitedly.

• Students are now happier because they have the freedom to choose the subjects they are interested in. As stated by siska. He admitted that he agreed with the abolition of the majors system. According to him, students will develop more if they are free to choose the subjects they are interested in. For example, if I choose Science, I really like Biology, but I don't really like Physics. In fact, apart from Biology, I also like Economics. For the current curriculum, it is difficult for me to choose, because Biology and Economics are in different groups. If given the choice of both, of course students will be happier, he said.

• The abolition of majors at the high school level also received a good response from the general public. In addition to making it easier for students to learn, this system is also believed to be able to minimize the occurrence of wrong choice of majors.
  He did not deny that all this time, choosing the wrong major was a scourge for students when they continued to the next level.
  It's simple, like I was in high school. I majored in Social Sciences, even though my interest was studying Pharmacy. Because of IPS, I can't go there. In fact, if you are majoring in Science, you can continue your education to the Social Sciences group. This is already discriminatory in education in my opinion, he said
  By being free to choose the subjects they are interested in, of course, students will also be more free to choose majors when they are in college.

So a little description and information about the independent curriculum that is being run.

By @latifah1