THE INVOLVEMENT OF ENGLISH TEACHERS ON MINIMUM COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT (AKM)

Minimum Competency Assessment or AKM is one of instruments used by Indonesian government to evaluate the education system. A number of studies have been done related to AKM, however there is no studies about English teachers’ involvement on AKM. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating English teachers’ involvement on AKM which covers; (1) English teachers’ perception on AKM, and (2) English teachers’ action plans to support students facing AKM. This is a survey study with 23 English teachers from secondary and high schools in East Java as participants. Online questionnaire and phone interview were used as instruments to collect the data. The result shows that most English teachers have positive perception towards AKM. They show their positive emotion, motivation and belief on AKM. Furthermore, the English teachers have created action plan as a form of their readiness to support students facing AKM. The planning covers teaching material, AKM exercise, teaching media, and teaching method. Further investigation about those aspects is still needed.


INTRODUCTION
Minimum Competency Assessment or Asesmen Kompetensi Minimum (AKM) is one among 3 instruments used in National Assessment, as part of curriculum reform (Kemendikbud, 2020). This assessment is designed for all Indonesian students in primary, secondary and high schools.
The majority of teachers are already familiar with AKM (Fauziah et al., 2021), even clearly stated that they are ready in facing AKM (Rokhim et al., 2021;Sari et al., 2020). In Fauziah et al., (2021) & Rokhim et al., (2021), most of teachers understand well that literacy and numeracy are the two skills assessed on AKM. Furthermore, teachers stated that schools already socialized AKM and provided teacher training related to questions that will be tested on AKM. One preparation that could be done by teachers are giving try-out to students based on the AKM content outline (Rokhim et al., 2021). However, according to students, the tested questions are not in line with the material given by teachers during the teaching and learning process (Perdana, 2021).
Several studies related to teachers' perception and their readiness to face AKM have been done (Fauziah et al., 2021;Rokhim et al., 2021;Sari et al., 2020), however, there is still no studies that elaborate the English teachers involvement on AKM. English teachers are teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia. The English subject itself is not tested in AKM. Furthermore, teachers should not only provide the try-out (Rokhim et al., 2021) to prepare the AKM, but also have to create action plan that could be done during teachinglearning process. The action plan is purposely created to avoid the mismatch between AKM test and the material given during the teaching-learning process (Perdana, 2021). So that, the teaching method and material given are connected with the questions tested on AKM. That is why, it is necessary to investigate the involvement of English teachers on Asesmen Kompetensi

Minimum (AKM).
This study leads to investigate English teachers' involvement on AKM. The teachers' involvement could be seen through their perception toward this new assessment system. The second point to examine teachers' involvement is through their action plan. A study by Oloruntegbe (2011) showed that teachers were reluctant in implementing new curriculum since they were hardly ever involved in the development and even how best way to implement it.
This study, therefore, is intentionally conducted to provide real picture of English teachers' involvement on AKM. It is expected that this study will enrich teachers, especially English teachers to embrace AKM as the new assessment system and to provide action plans using current methods and material that meet students' need.
Minimum Competency Assessment or Asesmen Kompetensi Minimum (AKM) is used to assess students' cognitive skill. There are two minimum or basic aspects that will be assessed; literacy and numeracy (Kemendikbud, 2020). The competences that assessed on literacy and numeracy include logical and systematic thinking skill, making inference based on concept and knowledge that already learnt, and also the skill to sort and process information (Kemendikbud, 2020). AKM has already known by educational parties; including stakeholders, teachers, students, and parents as well (Aisah et al., 2021). Most of teachers and students support this new assessment system (Fauziah et al., 2021;Munthe, 2020;Nurjanah, 2021;Rokhim et al., 2021;Sari et al., 2020) because of various reasons. Students were happy to embrace AKM since it creates no fears of being failed (Munthe, 2020). However, in a study by Yuliandari & Hadi (2020), it is shown that the implementation of AKM is still need to be optimized in term of teaching-learning system management. Some teachers are still using the old standard learning framework which focus on testing memory (Meriana & Murniarti, 2021).

The aim of this study is investigating the involvement of English teachers on Minimum
Competency Assessment or AKM. The involvement is including teachers' perception towards AKM and teachers' action plan to support students facing AKM. The research questions are: 1. How is English teachers' perception on AKM?
2. What are English teachers' action plan to support students facing AKM?

Design
This is survey research that employed descriptive qualitative approach. Survey research is used by researchers to investigate people's beliefs, opinions, characteristics, and behaviour (Ary et al., 2009). It is in line with this study's purpose which is investigating English teachers' involvement on Minimum Competency Assessment or AKM. There were six steps taken; (1) planning, (2) defining the population, (3) sampling, (4) constructing the instrument, (5) conducting the survey, and (6) processing the data (Ary et al., 2009)

Participant
In survey research, the subjects should be selected (randomly, if possible) from the population of interest (Fraenkel et al., 2012,p.398). In this study, therefore, 23 English teachers (13 teachers from secondary school and 10 teachers from high school) were chosen as the participants. The teachers were from 11 different schools in some cities in East Java, such as Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Gresik, Mojokerjo, and Jombang. The secondary and high school English teachers were chosen because English is taught as compulsory subject on those two levels.

Instrument
The most common instruments that utilized in survey research are the questionnaire and the interview (Bhattacherjee, 2012;Fraenkel, Jack R., Wallen, 2009 opinion about the use of AKM, English teachers' perception about connection between AKM and English lesson, English teachers' perception of learning English to support AKM, English teachers' effort in assisting students facing AKM, English teachers changes on teaching material, media, and method before and after AKM, and English teacher's plan to support AKM. To get in depth data, five semi-structured interview questions given to the participants.
The two instruments were validated by the expert before administered to the participants.

Data Collection and Analysis Technique
The data were collected on February -March 2021. Firstly, all the 23 English teachers completed the questionnaires that administered through google form. Data taken from the questionnaire then analyzed descriptively. To gain in depth information about the issue, followup interviews was held. There were 7 English teachers who participated in phone interview.
The recorded data from interview then transcribed to ease the analysis process. Coding was done after that to help drawing a comprehensive conclusion. Finally, the whole process of citing and listing of references employed offline model using Mendeley desktop (Turmudi, 2020).
Further, descriptive statistics is applied in form of charts and others.

86
The first thing that investigated was whether English teachers are already familiar with AKM or not. Based on the questionnaire given, almost all participants (96%) are familiar with Minimum Competency Assessment (AKM).

Figure 1. English teachers' familiarity of AKM
Even though the percentage of English teachers who are familiar with AKM is high, only 57% of English teachers who truly understand the 2 components (literacy and numeracy) that will be tested on AKM. Some teachers answered both academic and psychological ability, knowledge and skill, and also questions-based thinking that designed to be tested on AKM.

88
One among two English teachers who disagreed with AKM as the new assessment system reasoned that "… the result in AKM doesn't represent the whole quality of each student.

It only measures the knowledge but how about the character, how about their daily attitude."
Furthermore, one teacher was in neutral position because according to him "… in one side literation and numeration is very important for students but in other hand, not all subject appropriate with assessment based on literation and numeration."

Figure 4. English teachers' opinion about AKM
When the researcher asked whether there is a connection between AKM and English lesson, most English teachers said "yes". They believed that there is connection between AKM and English lesson in these aspects;

Participant opinion T1
"The connection is on the literation area" T2 "English can trigger the students' high literacy and numeric competences through various activities, especially which promote their HOTS" T6 "English has reading comprehension and so has AKM" 87% 9% 4% Agree Disagree Neutral 91% 9% T9 "Actually, the competences in English lesson include several texts or even numbers, so it influences students' literature". Figure 6. Learning English to support AKM

English Teachers' Action Plan
Investigating what have been done by English teachers in embracing AKM; 8 teachers stated that they focused on improving students' interest on reading, 7 teachers maximalised in providing AKM try-out, 5 teachers done nothing, and the rest of teachers answered vary.  Investigating whether there is a difference in teaching material, media, and method before and after the government announcing AKM as the new assessment system in Indonesia, 13 English teachers said "yes" and 10 said "no". The teachers said "yes" because 35% 30% 22% 13% Improve students' reading interest Provide AKM try-out Nothing Others They targeted the teacher to "help" the students to gain high score, so that the school rank will be up. They hope people would think that the school has a good quality with a "sim-salabim" from the teacher, even the dump students would be cleaver if they send their kids to our school. Honestly, it was very stressing for me as a teacher. Every day we supposed to teach the students by giving them UN questions, questions again and again. So boring. Although I teach them in a fun way, but questions never be so much fun. After the government stated that AKM will be used, of course it is agood news. We don't need to prepare many things (especially questions prediction) to prepare the students. All I need is to teach my students happily".

T8
While teachers who said "no" also have several reasons as follows;

T8: "It won't change much since I teach the classes that don't use National Curriculum for the English subject. But now I feel that the current National Curriculum (AKM) is in line with the curriculum we use for English". T23
"No. Because AKM is not for students. It is for school. The thing that I always emphasize to my students is to get better understanding every text they read. So, they can get the point precisely". 1, February 2022 , e-ISSN: 2442-482x, p-ISSN: 2089-3345, page 82- Figure 8. The difference on teaching material, media, and method before and after AKM
Among 23 English teachers, 8 of them stated that they will modify the teaching materials by more focusing on reading skill which can support students' literacy and numeracy.

Participant opinion T2
"Creating innovative materials for the students so that they can be more interested in learning English and achieve the best result to accomplished the AKM" T10 "Have a new module about English that make our students get maximum score" T18 "Give more students the opportunity to read a lot of text to improve their vocabulary mastery, and also their literature" Five English teachers argued that providing AKM exercises will make students more familiar with the questions and make them get good score.

Participant opinion T1
"Next time I will try to give them more exercises related with AKM, in English of course" T6 "Practice makes perfect so by practicing everyday it'll give everything perfect" Five English teachers"

T15
The next five teachers planned to find out the appropriate teaching method that could support students in facing AKM.

Discussion
The result shows that English teachers' have positive perception toward Minimum Competency Assessment or AKM. It could be seen from these reasons; First, most of English teachers are already familiar and acknowledge the two components of AKM (literacy and numeracy). It is in line with the previous study that showed high percentage of teachers' familiarity and readiness in facing AKM as the part of National Assessment (Fauziah et al., 2021;Novita et al., 2021;Nurjanah, 2021;Rokhim et al., 2021;Sari et al., 2020). When teachers are familiar dan have good knowledge of AKM, it possibly makes this part of curriculum reform will be implemented well. Teachers' familiarity should be followed by various trainings and preparation to create teachers' readiness.
Second, majority of English teachers agree on government's policy to use AKM as the new assessment system to measure the education quality in Indonesia. This positive respond toward AKM means that most teachers support it. The support from various parties, including teachers are needed to determine the success of AKM. It is in line with Cheung & Wong (2011)  and support toward this new assessment system. When teachers are supported by many information related to AKM, they will be more aware and ready to implement it. It is evident by Purwati et al., (2021) that AKM workshop training could increase teachers' comprehension on AKM.
Sixth, most English teachers believe that there is connection between English lesson and AKM. Moreover, they also believe that learning English could support students in facing AKM. This positive belief leads teachers to make best plan on their teaching by linking English lesson and AKM. The teachers' plan will result in students' performance because students' performance is always in line with teachers' involvement in designing their teaching.
Related to the second research question, most of English teachers have already done several efforts to support students facing AKM such as; improving students' reading interest and providing AKM try-out often to build students' critical thinking skill. It is because AKM consist of 2 components (literacy and numeracy) questions that require critical thinking to solve them. It is in line with Yuliandari & Hadi's (2020) study which concluded that teaching-learning process on AKM implementation should be done in solving High Order Thinking (HOT) questions to improve students' literacy and numeracy.
Furthermore, majority teachers have created planning to support students facing AKM.
In fact, teachers' involvement in planning teaching-learning process is really needed and influence students' performance (Joshi et al., 2020). On this study, teachers' planning is focusing on several aspects on teaching-learning process such as, teaching material, AKM exercise, teaching media, and teaching method. Based on the result, teachers create difference in those aspects to suits the AKM policy. It is already predicted before by Nehru (2019) that teaching material, media, and method will change due to the implementation of AKM.
It is also because some teachers argued that AKM is not a judgement for students, so it needs no preparation. Government as the stakeholder should provide teachers with the sufficient pedagogical content knowledge to help teachers designing the lesson (Huizinga et al., 2014) because teachers need to comprehend how is the best way to implement a new system like AKM (Oloruntegbe, 2011).

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
AKM is going to be done around September 2021 in Indonesia and most of English teachers have got the workshop training about it through schools where they work, teachers' association, and education office. Most English teachers have positive perception towards the use of AKM to evaluate the education system in Indonesia. English teachers show their positive emotion, motivation, and belief on AKM. By having this new system, students will no more focus on Final Examination scores, instead of developing literacy and numeracy as part of critical thinking skill.
English teachers' involvement in the implementation of AKM could be seen through their readiness to support students facing it. It could be seen from teachers' action plan that describe their planning in designing different teaching-learning process. The planning covers teaching material, AKM exercise, teaching media, and teaching method. By having such planning, teachers are more ready to support students in facing AKM. It means that the success of AKM depends on teachers' action plan in their teaching-learning process.
However, this study is limited to investigate English teachers in some area of East Java only. The result may not be holistic to apply for all English teachers in Indonesia. Further investigation on each aspect that mention in teachers' action plan is needed since AKM is just started this year.