Do Students Understand What Kurikulum Merdeka is?

Hello Kompasianers, I decided to put this conversation here since it is to do with Kurikulum Merdeka. This is an assignment given to us, 12 grade students, by our English teacher. In my group, we decided to present a "podcast" to do with Kurikulum Merdeka. The main goal of this assignment is for us students to practice better speaking in English. Well, here is the story:

A "PODCAST" ABOUT KURIKULUM MERDEKA 

 Hello guys! Welcome to our new podcast. I'm Maryati Situmorang, I a'm Paulina Sihaloho.

We are Student Perspective Podcast, SP2's hosts.

Maryati :  Paul, how do you feel today?

Paulina : I am happy. How about you?

Maryati : I am good. Glad to know you are happy.  Alright, we are going to discuss an important subject related to: Kurikulum Merdeka. We invited three guests to give us in depth thoughts and perspective. (The hosts and the three guests are already in the same room).   

Paulina : The name of our podcast is Student Perspective Podcast or SP2. Our main goal is to enable and empower students to talk.  

Maryati : Great Paul! Friends, before we start diving into our topic, we would like to listen to all our guests introducing themselves.

Paulina : Please, introduce yourself.

Eugene : Hi... (waving hand to the audiences). I'm Eugene Sipayung, I am a student here at SMA Bintang Timur, Pematang Siantar. Glad to being here with you.

Artha : Hi... (waving hand to the audiences). I'm Artha Sihotang, I am Eugene's classmate. Nice to meet you all!  

Juliana : Hi there...(waving hand to the audiences). I'm Juliana. I teach English at Bintang Timur High School.

Paulina : Welcome to SP2, Student Perspective Podcast! I am excited to have the three of you as our first guests! Can you tell us how does it feel being the first guests here?

Artha : As a student, I am excited, knowing that we are going to discuss about Kurikulum Merdeka.

Eugene : Thank you for inviting us. I am more than glad to join.

Juliana : Thank you for inviting me to come. It is a pleasure!

Maryati : We are really glad that the three of you can make it to come.

Paulina : Alright guys, as we said earlier, our topic is Kurikulum Merdeka.

Maryati : First of all, I would like to ask both of you as students (directing attention to Eugene and Artha):  what is on your mind when you hear the term "Kurikulum Merdeka"?

Eugene: I noticed that in Kurikulum Merdeka, all subjects are merged accordingly. A student needs to learn all subjects, unlike before.

Paulina : How about you Artha?

Artha : I think, since there are no majoring in grade 10th , either IPA or IPS,   we study all subjects. In other words, we can learn all subjects available for that grade, right? By doing so, we can find out what kind of direction we would like to pursue in our continuing study.

Maryati : Artha, it looks to me that you are already quite familiar with Kurikulum Merdeka and its implementation. Good to know. 

Paulina : Second question: Do you think Kurikulum Merdeka is an effective way for you to study?

Eugene: In my opinion, it is not that effective since students are required to learn all subjects. At times, it can be so boring. Students are required to learn everything. It makes us tired, exhausted, since we also have to do all kind of homework, and at the same time, we must do the projects.

Maryati : How about you Artha?

Artha : I think, for me, it is effective. The thing is, in my opinion, most of students don't know what their passion or their talents are. Kurikulum Merdeka can be a guidance to discover what our passion or talents are.

Maryati :  Ms. Juli, as a teacher at Bintang Timur, what is your response to both of them? Also, how does it go for teachers?  Tell us how teachers deal with Kurikulum Merdeka.

Juliana : Kurikulum Merdeka is designed to transform our educational system, nationally. The aim of this new system is to support both students and teachers, to learn in a more effective way, to meet various challenges we deal with in our era. Since it is new, all parts, including us as teachers, need time to adapt. Also, it is not yet an obligatory work to do at all schools in Indonesia but we at Bintang Timur already decided to implement it. The longer we practice it, I am sure, the better the quality of what we do.

Paulina : What kind of changes have you experienced by having K13 and then Kurikulum Merdeka? (asking Artha).

Artha : For  me, yes, there have been changes between K13 and Kurikulum Merdeka.

Maryati : What kind of changes have you experienced? (asking Eugene).

Eugene : I don't really enjoy the additional subject as such P5 (Proyek Penguatan Profil Pelajar Pancasila) since I am still confused what the purpose is.

Juliana : Kurikulum Merdeka is more flexible, gives more space and freedom for students and teachers to develop their learning process, while K13 is more structured and rigid; meaning, both teachers and students simply do what was asked by K13.

Paulina : Do you think Kurikulum Merdeka is going to be a sustainable system for us in Indonesia?

Eugene : I think, as long as the Minister of Education doesn't change it, it is going to still be implemented, hopefully with updates along the way.

Artha: Yes, that's right, maybe in the future there will be more progress on our learning methods to support students to become better in their achievement.

Maryati : What do you think, ma'am? (Pointing/directing attention to Ms. Jualiana)

Juliana : As I said before, this is relatively new in our educational system. It takes time to adapt. Only specifics schools have put Kurikulum Merdeka into their learning practice. Kurikulum Merdeka grants schools more autonomy, to design its own effective learning process, by including all kinds of local and relevant materials, designing teaching methods as interesting and captivating as possible. By doing do, students are encouraged to study in enthusiastic environment, to become innovative humans, which is highly needed in our globalized society.

Maryati : Eugene, since you tend to disagree with Kurikulum Merdeka, any idea you can share in order to improve it? 

Eugene : For me, during P5 lesson, I felt like I didn't really understand what the purpose of it. What I understand is, P5 is a project-based learning that relies on training. It looks to me that even for teachers in general, since it does take time to adapt, it is not an easy task, right? It does look to me, like having no clear direction.

Artha : I am sure, by taking time to practice it, and by teachers and students having more experience in implementing it, it is going to be more effective. The main purpose of P5 is to build strong nationalistic character and identity of us Indonesians, particularly students, therefore, we are capable to live as members of global community.

Juliana : Kurikulum Merdeka allows schools to have more autonomy to design its own learning process, creatively and effectively. We no longer can expect that the minister of education department provides such things for us as used to. As teachers, since this is a relatively new system, we need more trainings so we can design more effective methods on how to implement it in our teaching process. As you all know this far, for every project we do here at our school, we include several subjects altogether. Meaning, all related teachers need to do enough and good quality preparations before starting the projects involving students, in order to get high quality result of any executed project.

Paulina : Alright then, as hosts of this podcast, hope we all can have a take-away from this conversation, at least, we are aware how our situation looks like related to the implementation of Kurikulum Merdeka.

Maryati : That's right Paul! Hopefully, along the way as we practice more on implementing it, we become better in doing so. One more question to the three of you: Any idea about SP2?

Eugene : I would like to see SP2 grows strong and stronger. SP2 can be a platform where students can participate and contribute to build Indonesia.

Artha : I am optimistic that SP2 can give richer contribution as one of students' platform to express themselves.

Juliana : As a teacher, I do encourage you all to do your best to keep this platform growing, providing useful and beneficial information for our community and larger audiences.

Paulina : I would like to thank all our guests, our two student-colleagues, Eugene and Artha, and also, thank you Ms. Juliana for your insightful thoughts and encouragement.  

Maryati: Thank you to all our listeners here in this room and also out there wherever you are listening to our podcast. We do appreciate you and your time listening to us. Thank you and bye..bye...!***

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