KEBIJAKAN PENDIDIKAN ISLAM DALAM IMPLEMENTASI KURIKULUM MERDEKA

Abstrak

The Independent Curriculum brings important changes in learning governance because it provides a wider space for educational units and teachers to adapt learning to the needs of students. For Islamic education, especially Islamic Religious Education (PAI) in schools and religious subjects in madrasas, this flexibility also opens up opportunities and raises new demands. This article aims to analyze the direction of Islamic education policy in the implementation of the Independent Curriculum, accompanying regulatory changes, implementation issues, and relevant strengthening strategies. The research uses the literature review method by examining government regulations and scientific articles with DOIs published mainly in 2022–2025. Data are analyzed thematically through the stages of identification, sorting, comparison, and synthesis. The results of the study show that the policy has evolved from the learning recovery stage to a more flexible curriculum institutionalization, accompanied by special adjustments for madrasas. The effectiveness of PAI implementation is not only determined by the flexibility of the curriculum, but also by the alignment between regulatory directions, teacher competence, leadership support, availability of learning resources, quality of assessment, and the ability to maintain the depth of Islamic values. Therefore, policy strengthening needs to be directed at continuous teacher mentoring, development of contextual teaching tools, authentic assessments, cross-party collaboration, and quality control that still gives space to the local characteristics of educational units.