THE PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTING KURIKULUM MERDEKA IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS ENGLISH CLASSROOMS

This study aims to find out the problems faced by teachers in implementing the
Merdeka Curriculum in English classrooms and the problems found by English
teachers based on length of teaching and employment status. This study employed
mixed methods as the research design. The samples in this study were English
teachers who taught in grades 7 and 10 at Sekolah Penggerak batches 1 and 2 in
Bengkulu Province. Data collection was conducted using interviews and
questionnaires. The questionnaire was made based on Permendikbud Number 16
of 2022 concerning Education Process Standards, which was then validated by
experts. The results of this study showed that the problems English teachers faced
in implementing the Merdeka curriculum fell into a fairly difficult category in
three aspects: planning, implementing, and assessing learning process. English
teachers most often find problems during the implementation of learning process
with a percentage of 35% and a weighted mean of 2.48. This could be due to the
fact that they are in the process of transitioning from the 2013 curriculum to the
Merdeka curriculum, which makes it difficult to adapt to the new curriculum.
However, teachers who found fewer problems were those who had taught for
more than 10 years and were certified teachers. This might imply that the
certification program has had an impact on teachers' quality.
Keywords: Problems, Kurikulum Merdeka, English Classrooms