Today, Department of English held a webinar series. This webinar series is organized by ELT Research Group, one of the research groups under the Department. As the Head of the Department, Dr. Suharyadi, in the opening, this webinar series is given new term, called ELTAD, or English Language Teaching Academic Discussion. The coordinator of the ELT Research Group, Nunung Suryati, Ph.D, added that this webinar will be held regularly as part of the activities of the research group.

The topic of today’s webinar is ‘Academic Discussion on Kurikulum Merdeka Focusing on English Language Teaching in Secondary Schools’, presented by one of senior lecturers of the Department, Dr. Sintha Tresnadewi. Kurikulum Merdeka is the newest curriculum from the government of Indonesia, and it is going to be implemented in schools in Indonesia. Dr. Sintha Tresnadewi opens her presentation by giving insight of the background of this latest curriculum, related to the 21^st century skills, PISA, and learning loss caused by the Covid 19 pandemics. She then continues by describing some general aspects of Kurikulum Merdeka and some differences it has from the previous curriculum. She goes further by explaining Kurikulum Merdeka for teaching English, especially for Secondary Schools. The details of the presentation can be accessed in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UxiQMMUslM.

Since this is a fresh topic in teaching English, the webinar is flooded with participants. There are about 200 participants join this webinar, ranging from university students, teachers, to lecturers. Moreover, those participants come from all around Indonesia. There is participant from Lhokseumawe, Semarang, Kediri, Pontianak, and other cities around Indonesia.