Preparing for the Minimum Competency Assessment (AKM) Towards Quality Schools

by : Kadek Dwi Dharma Ariani

The Minimum Competency Assessment (AKM) is an assessment of the basic competencies needed by all students to be able to develop their own abilities and participate positively in society. There are two basic competencies measured by AKM: reading literacy and mathematical literacy (numeracy). In both reading and numeracy literacy, the competencies assessed include logical-systematic thinking skills, reasoning skills using concepts and knowledge that have been learned, as well as skills in sorting and processing information. AKM presents problems with various contexts that students are expected to be able to solve using their reading and numeracy literacy competencies. AKM is intended to measure competence in depth, not just content mastery. AKM no longer takes the form of multiple choice questions but adopts the form of questions based on higher-order thinking skills. AKM will be held for students in grades 5, 8 and 11 who are randomly selected by the government system from the Ministry of Education and Culture, meaning that AKM results will not be used to determine student graduation. The results of the AKM will be used as an assessment of school quality which will be compared with the results of assessments from other schools in one province and also with other schools throughout Indonesia. To pass each level of education, all students will follow the final assessment process at the end of each level, which is in class 6, 9 and 12 and the schools are given the authority to have their own policies following the government rules and regulations.

In order for students to be competent in literacy and numeracy skills, teachers need to be trained so that in the teaching and learning process, teachers reduce the use of the transfer approach and increase teaching using the construction approach.

Therefore, teaching projects that cross fields of study need to be more planned and implemented. In project teaching, teachers from different subject areas collaborate from planning to implementation of teaching.

In project learning, students are actively involved from planning to implementing the teaching process, specifically by formulating problems, planning ways to solve problems, searching for data, formulating problem solving, making conclusions, presenting and taking responsibility for these conclusions in front of the class. These conclusions are responded to and tested by other students, in class discussions.

Through this process, students' literacy and numeric competencies are trained to the maximum, of course, through an adequate frequency of the teaching process.

This is a way of preparing students, not only to take the minimum competency assessment, but at the same time, preparing students to face the challenges of their increasingly complex life.