Finnish Pedagogy Compared with Indonesia's Kurikulum Merdeka

Indonesia's Kurikulum Merdeka has moved the national curriculum in a distinctly Finnish friendly direction, with more teacher autonomy, project based learning and less exam pressure than the system it replaced. Here is where the two approaches genuinely align, and where real differences remain for primary schools.

Curriculum structure: Kurikulum Merdeka versus the Finnish core curriculum

Indonesia's Ministry of Education and Culture launched Kurikulum Merdeka in 2022 as an optional alternative to Kurikulum 2013, before it was made the official national curriculum through ministerial regulation in 2024. At elementary (SD) level it centres on literacy, numeracy, character and the Pancasila Student Profile, with content organised into broader learning phases rather than rigid single year targets, and schools and teachers given real flexibility to adapt materials to their pupils' context.

Finland's national core curriculum works on a similar logic, a framework document that leaves substantial room for local and school level decisions, but it has operated this way for decades rather than since a reform that only became fully national in 2024. Finland also organises part of its teaching through phenomenon based, multidisciplinary modules that deliberately cross subject boundaries, which is close in spirit to what Kurikulum Merdeka's project based P5 activities are now asking Indonesian schools to do.

Assessment: from Ujian Nasional to Asesmen Nasional

The Ujian Nasional, Indonesia's long standing national exam, was abolished in 2020 and replaced from 2021 by the Asesmen Nasional. This has three parts: the Asesmen Kompetensi Minimum (a literacy and numeracy competency check), a character survey and a learning environment survey. At primary level it is taken by a sample of grade 5 pupils rather than every child, and it is used diagnostically to improve schools and system quality rather than to decide individual graduation or promotion. That is a genuine philosophical shift toward something much closer to how Finnish pedagogy treats assessment.

The two systems are not identical, though. Finland has no dedicated national test at all in basic education; it relies entirely on sampling groups of schools for system level monitoring and leaves day to day grading to teachers using formative, often narrative feedback. Indonesia's Asesmen Nasional still exists as a distinct, centrally administered instrument, so the change should be read as real convergence rather than a full match with the Finnish model.

Class sizes and teacher training

Indonesia's Guru Penggerak (Teacher Driver) programme, part of the wider Merdeka Belajar reforms, is a national scale professional development effort aimed at building a stronger cadre of teacher leaders; since 2023 a Guru Penggerak certificate has been required to become a school principal or supervisor. Pre service teachers separately complete a Pre Service Teacher Professional Education (PPG) pathway on top of their initial degree.

Finland sets a different starting bar entirely: every class teacher, from grade 1 upward, completes a research based master's degree combining subject study, educational theory and supervised teaching practice before they are allowed to teach at all, with further growth happening through ongoing professional collaboration rather than a separate leadership certification track. Class size compounds the gap. Finnish classrooms average under 20 pupils, while public primary classrooms in Indonesia, particularly in urban areas, are commonly reported to be considerably larger, which limits how much individual attention any curriculum, however progressive on paper, can realistically deliver day to day.

Pedagogy style and Finland's existing footprint in Indonesia

The P5 projects at the heart of Kurikulum Merdeka are built around character, critical thinking and creativity, a direction that shares real common ground with Finnish phenomenon based learning and its emphasis on transversal competences over rote content. Research into early implementation is honest about the gap between policy intent and daily classroom reality, though, flagging uneven teacher readiness, inconsistent parental understanding of the new model, and administrative burden as genuine obstacles, particularly outside better resourced urban schools.

Finland already has a presence in Indonesian early years education through HEI Schools, which has opened preschool campuses in Jakarta, including the Lillipods concept co developed by teams in Finland and Indonesia and adapted deliberately to local needs rather than exported unchanged. OPPI's focus sits a stage further on: embedding Finnish pedagogy across the primary years that follow early childhood, where Kurikulum Merdeka's project based intent already gives K-5 schools a national framework to work with rather than against.

A curriculum reform sets the direction. What happens inside the classroom every day is still a separate question, and that is where pedagogy earns its keep.

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