Oleh : Widodo
According to Ki Hadjar Dewantara that the essence of education incorporate culture into the child and incorporate the child into the culture so that the child becomes a human being. In the freedom of Learning Curriculum, schools can develop culture through extracurricular and co-curricular activities that students participate in. These activities are chosen by many students freely, according to their wishes. The concept of freedom that is promoted in the Curriculum since 1922 by Taman siswa as “the life of freedom”
The educational process, this assumption is in line with the condition of Indonesia, where the majority of the population at that time were farmers. We can conclude that education must run according to the conditions of the people, according to the times and adapted to prepare students for their future. He said that the teachers are like the farmers because they will take care of the seeds by weeding the surrounding huma, giving water, giving fertilizer so that the plants are fertile, and the fruit is abundant. However, it is impossible for farmers to turn mango seeds into grapes. That is the natural process or the basis that must be considered in education and it has the skills and desires of teachers.
To achieve a liberating education, education should be able to make humans free as well. As Ki Hadjar said that educating children will become human beings who are free in mind, free in mind, and free in energy. The teacher should not only provide necessary and good knowledge, but must also educate the students to look for knowledge for himself and use it for public purposes.
The current educational policy launched by “Mas Menteri” (his intimate call) or Mr.Nadiem Makarim went viral, spreads pros and cons among people but it also sheds the light ofoptimism to the refinement of national education outcome. How would this newly-endorsed policy named “Merdeka belajar” or “Freedom of Learning” affect learning in the formal education domain—It is a big question mark. It is important to note that the basis of Nadiem’s concept for his exclusive discretion for national education was to promote critical thinking and students’ innovation. Regarding this, Nadiem stressed that “critical thinking and innovation cannot grow in a restricted ecosystem”. Therefore, classroom teachers must be able to provide a wide range of opportunities to engage into the target language. As the utmost key to implementation, teachers are expected to create meaningful and purposeful for pedagogy. Otherwise, the major objectives will not be able to attain caused by the occurrences of the yawning gap between policies and practices.To avoid more biases, the authorities should begin to ensure teachers’ competence to adhere the notion of the concept of “freedom of learning” in the proportion of their roles as foreign language teachers in Indonesian context. Notwithstanding, many cases have shown teachers’ misinterpretation in embracing a particular method for pedagogical purposes. As results, the implementation has far been misled in the framework of the so-called conventional-traditional method. Thus, teachers’ professional development must be prioritized to resolve disorientation that long ago caused by the adoption of the hegemonic methods.
We hope that the policy of freedom for learning as a new program for the direction of future learning will clash, even on the contrary become a policy that is correlated with previous educational programs, such as; Child Friendly Schools (SRA), Healthy Schools, Schools Free from Bullying, School Literacy Program(GLS), Strengthening Character Education such as tolerance, mutual respect, mutual respect, and PAIKEM Learning (Active Learning, Innovative, Creative, Effective, and Fun). It can be said that the education policy of Merdeka Learning is a grand design of national education which aims to change fundamentally in accelerating the birth of Indonesian human resources with character, intelligence, and competitiveness. Because in the current conditions it is so urgent to invest heavily in the development of the quality of human resources (HR), because one of the targets is to prepare the 2045 Golden Generation, welcoming 100 years of Indonesia’s independence.