ANALYZING CIVICS EDUCATION TEACHERS' DIFFICULTIES IN APPLYING MERDEKA CURRICULUM ON SMPN 9 KOTA BIMA

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
The Indonesian government recently published a new curriculum called the independent curriculum. This curriculum is presented with the aim of perfecting the previous curriculum. There were several problems encountered during the implementation of the previous curriculum so that this new curriculum was presented. This problem, for example, is the result of Abdul Zainab (2019: 46), the implementation of the K13 curriculum has experienced several obstacles, such as there are still several teachers who have not fully implemented the 2013 curriculum, for example combining it with the KTSP curriculum, and there are constraints on facilities and infrastructure such as computers, laptops and LCD, and the results of Rusnaeni et al. (2019), the problem experienced by teachers in implementing learning is that it is difficult to change students' learning methods from passive to active as emphasized in the 2013 curriculum, most students have not been able to implement learning models. For example, such as the discovery/inquiry model which emphasizes students to find and present the information they find themselves, because previously students were used to receiving learning material that was mostly delivered by Civics subject teachers.
While in the 2013 curriculum there has been a change where the teacher is only a facilitator or monitoring students, the rest of the students are trying to find information from other sources. Furthermore, Amiruddin et al.'s research results (2021) illustrate that the implementation of the K13 curriculum, during the Covid-19 pandemic at SMAN 3 Kota Bima, was not optimal, only running 50 percent. This is due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation which is currently sweeping the world including Indonesia, which has damaged all sectors including education.
The implementation of the 2013 Curriculum during the Covid-19 pandemic was very difficult to implement, apart from the difficulty of learning through long-distance communication, and not all students were able to take part in the lessons, due to problems of time, place and costs for parents. This has a big impact on the development of students' abilities at SMAN 3 Kota Bima. Teachers cannot optimally see student development, as a result students cannot achieve the targets of the national curriculum and school curriculum (Rasmitadila et al., 2020). New research related to the problem of implementing an independent curriculum, namely research conducted by Prihatini and Sugiarti (2022) explains that in the process of implementing an independent curriculum there are still some teachers who feel they are not ready to implement an independent curriculum even though they have received training from PPG UMM because because his school of origin had never implemented the curriculum. Furthermore, some teachers find it so difficult to become innovative teachers. The main cause is the complex structure of learning objectives in the form of narrative paragraphs (Teng & Zhang, 2020), while teachers need to break them down into several smaller learning objectives (TP) so that they can be applied to each learning meeting.
The difference between this research and previous research is that previous research focused more on examining how the 2013 curriculum was implemented and examining how teachers were prepared to implement the Merdeka curriculum. While this research is more focused on examining the difficulties of Pancasila and citizenship education teachers in implementing the role of an independent curriculum. The next difference is that previous research used quantitative research methods while this research used qualitative research. Therefore, this study aims to expand previous research and provide new findings related to the implementation of the independent curriculum.
This study focuses on examining the difficulties of Civics teachers in implementing the independent curriculum roles, such as the conservative role, the creative role, and the critical & evaluative role. So that this research becomes research that further expands the discussion of previous research and becomes a new discovery related to the implementation of the independent curriculum.
Based on the results of initial observations conducted in the Bima area of NTB, it was discovered that only 9 schools had implemented the independent curriculum at the Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School and High School levels. One of the schools implementing the independent curriculum in Bima, NTB, is SMPN 9 Kota Bima. With the many problems that occurred in implementing the previous curriculum, both the problem of facilities and infrastructure and the readiness of teachers in implementing the curriculum. Researchers are interested in knowing what difficulties schools experience in implementing the independent curriculum, especially the difficulties experienced by PPKn teachers in implementing this new curriculum. So that researchers are interested in conducting research with the title "Analyzing Civics Education Teachers' Difficulties in Applying Merdeka Curriculum at SMPN 9 Kota Bima." The researchers hope to give more knowledge regarding teachers' difficulties in Merdeka Curriculum application.

METHODS
Data collection was carried out by observation, interviews and documentation. Interviews were conducted with predetermined sources. The resource persons were 3 Pancasila and Citizenship Education teachers and the vice principal of the curriculum section.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Implementation of the Independent Curriculum at SMPN 9 Kota Bima
The implementation of the independent curriculum at SMPN 9 Bima City has been implemented for 2 years, in the implementation of the independent curriculum there are still a number of things that need to be developed, for example literacy and involvement of internal and external stakeholders that need to be developed. The implementation of the independent learning curriculum is carried out by designing a flow of learning objectives and their assessments (Richards, 2013). The implementation of the independent learning curriculum at SMPN 9 Kota Bima is carried out by taking into account several functions of the content of the curriculum such as the function of supplementation, exploration.
According to Mulyasa (2021) the functions of the independent curriculum are the functions of supplementation, exploration, and expertise. The implementation of the independent learning curriculum function at SMPN 9 Kota Bima is as follows.

Supplementation
The implementation of the independent curriculum supplementation function at SMPN 9 Kota Bima is carried out by implementing differentiation learning. Differentiation is an activity of modifying processes, designing various activities and helping students to understand material and modifying products, as well as providing opportunities for students to show what they understand (Bondie et al., 2019). Differentiation will provide space for students to be able to express themselves (Tomlinson, 2014). This activity is carried out collaboratively so that the teacher can find out what the needs of students are and in compiling learning modules and ATP based on an initial diagnostic assessment. So that the implementation of curriculum supplementation at SMPN 9 Kota Bima is carried out based on the needs of students. So that the teacher is obliged to provide guidance to students who have needs in accordance with the circumstances of students such as in developing academic abilities and developing students' talents according to student learning interests.

Analyzing Civics Education Teachers' Difficulties in Applying Merdeka Curriculum at SMPN 9 Kota Bima
In implementing the curriculum supplementation function at SMPN 9 Kota Bima, teachers experience several difficulties such as literacy problems that students have, for example, there are still some students who are not yet fluent in reading as in grades 7 and grades 8. This can happen because of the acceptance of new students. SMPN 9 Kota Bima does not apply strict enough rules in the process of admitting new students, this is done because SMPN 9 Kota Bima tries to provide opportunities for any student who wants to go to school and improve their academic abilities, especially students who live around the school area of SMPN 9 Kota. Bima. The efforts made by SMPN 9 Kota Bima in facilitating the selection process for new student admissions are in line with the educational goals stated in the opening of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. It states that one of the goals of the Republic of Indonesia is to educate the life of the nation. In line with the preamble of the 1945 Constitution, the body of the constituent assembly, including Article 20, Article 21, Article 29 C paragraph 1, Article 31 and Article 32, also mandates that the government seek and organize a national education system to increase faith and piety to God Almighty and noble character in order to educate the life of the nation which is regulated by law (Wijiatun, 2022). So that every school is required to provide opportunities for prospective students to get a good education.

Exploration
The application of the Curriculum Exploration Function at SMPN 9 Kota Bima is carried out by giving freedom to students in choosing interests that suit their talents, both in the fields of sports and the arts. The orientation of sports and arts activities in the independent curriculum contains activities for fitness and here contains creative activities to hone a sense of art (Khoirurrijal, 2022). Through this function students are expected to be able to learn according to their interests and talents, so it is hoped that they will learn without coercion (Mulyasa, 2021). Students who have interests and talents are directed to extra-curricular activities and will be guided based on student interest and talent groups (Collins & Jones Roberson, 2020;Reis et al., 2022). Students who have better abilities than other students will be selected and will be selected to take part in competitions related to their talents and potential. From the results of the research, the achievements obtained by students of SMPN 9 Kota Bima after participating in several competitions, namely winning champions in sports such as volleyball and badminton won provincial level champions, and students of SMPN 9 Kota Bima also took part in other championships such as in the field of poetry etc.
The application of the independent curriculum exploration function carried out by SMPN 9 Kota Bima is the same as what was conveyed by Siswoyo (2021)  different privileges, the task of the teacher/school is to educate and help students to be able to recognize their talents and help develop these talents. So it can be concluded that SMPN 9 Kotaa Bima has implemented the function of supplementing the independent curriculum guided by the benefits of independent learning itself, because independent learning gives freedom to students to learn and develop their talents and potential.

Civic Education Teachers' Difficulties in Implementing the Conservative Role of the Independent Curriculum
The independent learning curriculum has a conservative role, this role is related to preserving various cultural values as a legacy from the past. In facing the era of globalization, PPKn teachers must work hard in shaping the character of students so that the influence of the times, technology and the influence of foreign culture does not have a negative impact on students.
PPKn teachers at SMPN 9 Kota Bima in carrying out the conservative role of the independent curriculum during the learning process try to link learning material with examples of community cultural values in the Bima area and introduce Indonesian culture to students. Furthermore, in several meetings in the learning process PPKn teachers also explain and introduce the values and culture of Indonesian society to students and invite students to love and respect Indonesian culture so that the cultural values of Indonesian society will be maintained from the times. Pancasila values are a benchmark that is always used by Civics teachers in conveying this material to students.
Freedom in learning has the intention of issuing freedom of expression for teachers and students at school, where a school environment is created that is free from various obstacles and psychological pressure, especially for teachers who have the freedom to teach their students so that they can focus and maximize the intellectual development of the nation's children (Wijiatun, 2022).
In carrying out the conservative role of the independent curriculum, PPKn teachers prioritize character education because character education is closely related to the inheritance of community cultural values and the inculcation of norms that apply in people's lives. This opinion is in accordance with the 7 reasons for the importance of character education conveyed by Thomas Lickona, according to Thomas Lickona there are 7 reasons why character education must be given to citizens from an early age, namely: 1) It is the best way to ensure students have good personality and character in their life; 2) This education can help improve student academic achievement; 3) Some children cannot form a strong character for themselves elsewhere; 4) Can form individuals who value and respect others and can live in a pluralistic society; 5) As an effort to address the root of social-moral problems, such as dishonesty, impoliteness, violence, low work ethic, and others; 6) Is the best way to shape individual behavior before entering the world of work/business; And 7) As a way to teach cultural values (Wijiatun, 2022). From the explanation above, we can conclude that the application of the conservative role of the independent learning curriculum carried out by PPKn teachers at SMPN 9 Kota Bima is carried out by linking learning material with community cultural values, using Pancasila values as a guide in the learning process and through character education and cultural norms in social life. this is in accordance with what was conveyed by Thomas Lickona. Thomas Lickona said that character education is very important because character education is a way to teach cultural values.
Character education is a conscious and planned human effort to educate and empower students' potential to build character so that they can become individuals who benefit themselves and their environment. Character education is an education system that aims to instill certain character values in students in which there are components of knowledge, awareness or will, as well as actions to carry out these values (Wijiatun, 2022).
This study reveals that the difficulties experienced by PPKn teachers in interpreting the conservative role of the independent learning curriculum are: 1) Problems related to student background: The background of the student in question is a student who has a broken home. This condition is one of the factors that makes it difficult for PPKn teachers to properly carry out the conservative role of the independent curriculum, the reason being that these students lack parental guidance and affection, so these students tend to be more difficult to regulate in learning activities and tend to have low learning enthusiasm. . 2) The problem of environmental influences: Environmental influences are one of the factors that influence the implementation of the conservative role of the independent curriculum, this happens because the learning given at school is less imprinted on student behavior, this is caused by the habits of students when after school they often interact with the outside environment such as meeting peers and other people who have a negative influence, the habit of playing games using impolite language, and following bad trends that are developing in society.

Civics Teacher Difficulties in Carrying Out the Creative Role of the Independent Curriculum.
With the creative role of the independent curriculum, students are expected to be able to answer any challenges caused by the times. The creative role of the independent curriculum is expected to contain new things so that students can develop their potential so that they can play an active role in the fast-changing social life activities of society so that learning in schools can be relevant to the needs of the social demands of society from time to time.
In this concept the learning process focuses on activeness and creativity which will give birth to individuals who are innovative and have entrepreneurial abilities. So as to be able to develop and solve various problems. Thus to support character abilities in facing the 21st century, the world of education must be able to develop critical and creative thinking, so that it can discover new things so that it will produce graduates who have an entrepreneurial spirit who are able to manage the country and all its potential (Siswoyo, 2021).
From the results of the PPKn teacher's research in carrying out the creative role of the independent curriculum by trying to develop students' potential by utilizing school digitization programs in the learning process. Civics teachers give freedom to students to search for learning materials from the internet. This activity is carried out so that students can relate the material they get from other sources such as from the internet, the environmental conditions of students' lives, with the material in the book. Actions taken by Civics teachers in giving freedom to students to utilize technology in the learning process. This is in line with the foundation of curriculum development, namely the foundation of technology. In the technological foundation of curriculum development it is explained that science and technology cannot be separated in the world of education, and are a major part of current learning (Khoirurrijal, 2022). So that the efforts made by PPKn teachers are in accordance with the current needs of students in order to hone their skills in the field of science and technology. What needs to be known is that optimal use of technology will have a positive impact on curriculum implementation.
The difficulties experienced by PKKn Teachers are in implementing the creative role of the independent curriculum, namely those related to the use of technology for the learning process. From the results of the study there were several teachers who were not proficient and accustomed to utilizing school digitization programs in the learning process both those related to using internet media to find learning materials and using applications for learning tools such as zoom and google meet during the Covid 19 pandemic. PPKn who experience difficulties in utilizing technology in the learning process are PPKn teachers who have senior status or who are already old and approaching retirement as educators. The reason the teacher is not proficient in using technology is because in the past guidance related to the use of technology in the learning process was not given to the teacher. Even though other teachers have given guidance on the use of technology in learning several times, the forgetfulness factor caused by being too old has become an obstacle for teachers in mastering technology. So that the learning process carried out is still focused on using textbooks only in the learning process.
Before teaching students, the understanding and method of applying the curriculum must first be mastered by the teacher. The following are a number of things that need to be done by teachers related to training and provision of learning resources: 1) The training is in the form of micro learning in digital applications. This training is oriented towards developing an independent curriculum. Teachers as teaching staff are certainly required to have a better understanding of the curriculum being taught. 2) Providing various resource persons in the independent curriculum training. This can be done by utilizing schools and driving teachers as educational role models. 3) Various learning resources for teachers related to curriculum development. The media can be in the form of videos, e-books, and similar instruments that support the dissemination of existing curriculum development. 4) Teachers need to form a community to maximize the implementation of the independent curriculum (Khoirurrijal, 2022). It can be concluded that the learning process applied by Civics teachers who are not yet proficient in using technology in learning is carried out taking into account the condition of the teaching staff so that the learning process can run well.

Analyzing Civics Education Teachers' Difficulties in Applying Merdeka Curriculum at SMPN 9 Kota Bima
Next is related to giving assignments to students. In the learning process the PPKn teacher found that there were still some students who rarely did the assignments given during the learning process. The reason is that there are still some students who reason that they still don't have an Android cellphone to look for material for learning. The impact that was felt the most was that during the pandemic, many students were forced not to take part in the learning process because they did not have a cell phone and did not have an internet package for online learning. The solution made by Civics teachers in dealing with these conditions is to create a learning process with a group learning system so that the problem can be resolved. So that students will work together and help each other in the learning process. Independent curriculum development that is carried out must be able to adapt to existing technology. Optimal use of technology will have a positive impact on the development of the implemented curriculum (Khoirurrijal, 2022). Teachers in implementing the independent curriculum must be able to take advantage of existing technology and must be able to adjust the learning process to the conditions that occur and optimize the use of existing technology so that the learning process can run well.
The next reason is that it is difficult to change student study habits because students during the past few semesters have started to get used to the online learning process, so that when learning face to face there are still some students who are less enthusiastic about the learning process. We can conclude that the difficulties experienced by PPKn teachers in implementing the creative role of the independent curriculum are, (1) some (senior) PPKn teachers are not proficient in using technology in the learning process; (2) there are still students who do not have an android cellphone as a learning tool; (3) it is difficult to change students' learning habits.

Civic Education Teachers' Difficulties in Implementing Creative and Evaluative Roles in the Independent Curriculum
PPKn teachers are tasked with providing students with an understanding of anything related to the positive and negative impacts of the progress of the times in the era of globalization. The PPKn teacher's task is made easier by the critical and evaluative role of the independent curriculum. The critical and evaluative role of the independent curriculum is to select values and culture that need to be maintained and evaluate everything that is considered useful for the lives of students (Mulyasa, 2021).
PPKn teachers in carrying out their critical and evaluative roles in the independent curriculum experience difficulties in supervising and controlling students in the use of technology carried out during the learning process. The PPKn teacher explained that the learning process is currently technology-based so that it will definitely have a lot of negative impacts on students, such as starting to reduce the norms of decency and decency caused by the influence of the content they see in the media. In addition, in the filter learning process, it was found that several children were busy opening other applications in the learning process, which made them less focused on learning. The results of this study are almost the same as those presented by, Ambarwati et al. (2021) the negative impact on the use of technology on students, namely, (1) changing social life; (2) there are changes in behavior, ethics, norms, and morals in life, (3) excessive use will cause children to become anti-social because it is fun to be in the virtual world compared to the real world; (4) addicted to the use of technology can make children behave lazy and wasteful.
PPKn teachers in evaluating the impact that occurs on students always give examples to students in using good technology. In addition, PPKn teachers also in every meeting always remind students to use mobile phones as a tool that is used only for learning. Likewise with the learning conditions in the classroom, Civics teachers always supervise students in using mobile phones as a tool to find learning material related to the assignments given.

CONCLUSION
Based on the results of the discussion, it can be concluded that the difficulties experienced by Civics teachers in implementing the independent curriculum at SMPN 9 Kota Bima, namely, the implementation of the independent curriculum at SMPN 9 Kota Bima has been implemented for 2 years. Problems of literacy and involvement of internal and external stakeholders are a number of things that need to be improved and improved. Furthermore, the implementation of the independent curriculum is carried out by designing its own flow of learning objectives (ATP). The implementation of the independent curriculum supplementation function is carried out by means of differentiation such as modifying processes, designing various activities and helping students to better understand the material, as well as providing opportunities for students to show what they have understood. The preparation of ATP is carried out based on an initial diagnostic assessment so that the teacher will be able to know the needs of students. The difficulties experienced by teachers in implementing the independent curriculum supplementation function are related to the existence of literacy problems experienced by students. The implementation of the independent curriculum exploration function at SMPN 9 Kota Bima is carried out by giving freedom to students in choosing interests that suit their talents. Students who have interests and talents will be directed into extra-curricular activities so that at this stage the school's assignments assist students in exploring and developing the talents possessed by students. Furthermore, those related to the application of expertise functions (specialization) at SMPN 9 Kota Bima cannot yet be carried out because they are still in the design stage.
The difficulties experienced by PPKn teachers in interpreting the conservative role of the independent curriculum are problems related to student backgrounds, and problems of environmental influence on students. In addition, there are still some teachers who are not proficient in using technology as a learning tool. These teachers are teachers with senior status or teachers who are approaching retirement as educators. Furthermore, there are still some students who do not have cellphones and internet packages as support in carrying out learning so that some students use this as an excuse for not doing assignments. The latter is difficult to change students' study habits.