MERDEKA CURRICULUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH LEARNING IN THE DIGITAL ERA

: The digital era is a digital education environment where technical resources support teaching and learning. To determine educational performance, the curriculum must be adaptive to all contemporary concerns and changes. Following several curriculum reforms, the Merdeka Curriculum is currently being implemented in Indonesia. The Indonesian government has fully changed the curriculum possible to complete the educational goals anticipated in this digital era. This study compares the 2013 curriculum to the Merdeka curriculum for learning English at the senior high school level in terms of the basic framework, targeted competencies, curriculum structure, learning, assessment, teaching materials, and curriculum tools. The research design used in this study is a qualitative approach with content analysis. Based on the basic framework, targeted competencies, curriculum structure, learning process, assessment, teaching resources, and curriculum tool, this study shows similarities and differences between the 2013 and Merdeka curriculum.


INTRODUCTION
The modern educational system is being transformed by the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0), particularly in teaching English as a foreign language. English is the most widely used language in the modern digital age. With technological advancements, students in the digital age are becoming more sophisticated. They constantly use digital devices, and they now live an online lifestyle. As a result, they can easily and rapidly obtain the needed information.
Education 4.0 has developed as a new methodology due to IR 4.0. It is the integration of advanced technology in the teaching and learning process to complement student talents and interests (Hariharasudan & Kot, 2018). Consequently, instructors become educators who gain pedagogical skills, extensive content knowledge, and digital technologies and are always adaptable to contemporary dynamics (Ginting, 2019;.
Curriculum reform in Indonesia indicates that digital education is becoming more popular. The government launched the Merdeka curriculum in response to educational issues in the digital era. In addition, students with low literacy and numeracy skills are encouraged by found that the average literacy and numeracy scores of the participants' Indonesian students are below average. Through curriculum "upgrades," the Indonesian government tries to improve its students' reading and math skills. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic that has plagued Indonesia for the past two years necessitates that all educational activities be conducted at home. As a result, the education system in Indonesia was experiencing learning loss. As a result, the government has undertaken numerous steps to recover. One is to provide each educational unit the opportunity to select the curriculum implemented in schools depending on the requirements of school members, particularly students.
According to Ki Hajar Dewantara, education is where all the seeds are planted. Under this philosophy, Education's purpose is to assist students in reaching their greatest potential.
School is not a prison; instead, it should be used to develop, standardize, and integrate multiple abilities. Learning independence, the central theme of current Indonesian education policy and the forerunner of the Merdeka curriculum education, was ultimately initiated by the participants' students' need to learn freely (Setiawan et al., 2022).
Teachers must balance theoretical and practical knowledge to provide students with fundamental skills in the digital age (Sharma, 2017). The changing curriculum in the field of English learning presents new challenges for developing effective lesson plans, creative and meaningful teaching, and evaluation of learning outcomes (Sofiana et al., 2019). Technology is modifying how teachers and students learn (Richards, 2017). In this modern era, technology plays an important role in curriculum implementation. This study examines the similarities and differences between the 2013 and Merdeka curriculum for high school students learning English.

METHOD
The methodology used in this article is qualitative, involving content analysis. This article focuses on the 2013 curriculum and the Merdeka curriculum documents. The 2013 and Merdeka curriculum materials evaluate the basic framework, targeted competencies, curriculum structure, learning process, assessment, teaching resources, and curriculum tools (Kemdikbud, 2022).

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The curriculum is the foundation for reaching the levels required for education during the teaching and learning process. It has been utilized to provide students with a set of necessary skills. The curriculum encompasses all learning activities organized and directed by the school Volume 7 No. 1. 2023 | 3 to fulfill its educational objectives (Tyler, 1957). The term curriculum is derived from the Greek words curir (runner) and curare (racetrack) (Barlian et al., 2022). As a result, in education, the term curriculum (curriculum) refers to the distance that must be traveled when running an activity from beginning to end (Indarta et al., 2022). This idea aligns with Bobbitt's (1918) definition of curriculum: the entire spectrum of directed and undirected experiences intended to maximize individual prospective learners. A competent authority should design the curriculum with the necessary competence and capacity (Maryono & Emilia, 2022).
Curriculum, in many senses, can be defined as the main component of planned and structured education methodically in the learning process to produce the proper output desired outcome.
The Indonesian government actively innovates in curriculum reform, student character development, teacher participation in the classroom, and learning-teaching. In Indonesia, schools have introduced kinds of curriculum. Beginning with the curriculum of 1947, 1952, 1964, 1975, 1984, 1994, and 2004or KBK (Based Curriculum Competency), 2006or KTSP, 2013, and the newest one is the Merdeka Curriculum (Raharjo, 2020).

Curriculum
Through government education policy and initiatives to improve the 2006 curriculum, the 2013 curriculum paradigm will be adopted (Sapitri, 2022). The 2013 curriculum is intended to provide students with a balanced percentage of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor components, the outcome of which is an assessment based on these aspects, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor assessment (Fatonah et al., 2013). Planning, teaching, learning, and evaluation are all integrated into implementing the 2013 curriculum (Thoyibah et al., 2019).
Based on the 2013 curriculum, the evaluation procedure is proposed to determine the outcomes of the teaching and learning process and student achievement. The 2013 curriculum focuses on scientific-based learning activities' most recent pedagogical elements. According to the 2013 curriculum, learning activities are the educational process that allows students to discover their potential skills (Fujiati et al., 2020). Through the 2013 curriculum, students are expected to develop the attitudes, knowledge, and abilities needed to contribute to society, nation, and country.

Merdeka Curriculum
Merdeka Curriculum was developed as a more adaptive curriculum framework as part  The 2013 curriculum is comparable to the Merdeka curriculum in that it includes the basic framework of the national education system and national educational standards.
The difference is that the Pancasila Student Profile is developed in the Merdeka curriculum rather than the 2013 curriculum.

Targeted Competency
Basic competency (KD) and Core competencies (KI) are aimed competencies in the 2013 curriculum. Unlike the Merdeka curriculum, the intended competency employs the phrase learning outcomes (CP). Learning outcomes (CP) in the learning process comprise students' knowledge, attitudes, and abilities to acquire competency in each phase. Phase E corresponds to class X in high school, while phase F corresponds to classes XI and XII.

Structure of Curriculum
The 2013 curriculum structure includes intracurricular and extracurricular activities.

Learning Process
The 2013 curriculum takes a scientific approach to learning in all topics. The Merdeka curriculum employs a differentiation approach based on the student's abilities.
Furthermore, in the Merdeka curriculum, there is a project to strengthen the Pancasila Student Profile that students must complete while learning.

Assessment
In terms of assessment, the 2013 curriculum employs formative and summative assessments, whereas the Merdeka curriculum uses formative assessment and its results as a reflection to form appropriate student learning ability. The Merdeka curriculum includes an assessment, namely a project to strengthen Pancasila students' profiles,

CONCLUSION
The description above can be used to derive numerous conclusions, including the fact that there are many similarities and differences between the 2013 curriculum and the Merdeka curriculum in teaching English to senior high school students. The successful education of a nation is indicated by a curriculum that is well administered following the requirements of the period. As part of the attempt to improve the quality of education in Indonesia, particularly in the digital era, teachers and students can respond to curriculum changes