The Math Value Of Drops In TKA 2025 Is A Structural Crisis Signal

JAKARTA The decline in mathematical value in the 2025 Academic Ability Test (TKA) is an indicator of systemic failure managed by the state, not just a teacher's fault.

"I leaked here even though I haven't taken the 2025 foreign workers, which we organize is math too. It's not because the students are stupid, it's not. But maybe the way we teach it and the book doesn't encourage them to learn," said the statement of the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (Mendikdasmen) Abdul Mu'ti at the 20th National Conference of the Indonesian Issuance Association (Ikapi) in Jakarta, Wednesday (19/11/2025).

TKA was completed in early November. However, according to Abdul Mu'ti, the results were blocked. Not as expected. From his statement, he blamed teachers and books as the cause of poor math foreign workers' grades.

The National Coordinator of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) Ubaid Matraji regretted the minister's statement which even blamed the teacher. According to him, this actually reflects the systemic failure managed by the state.

Foreign Workers (TKA) were officially introduced in the era of Mendikdasmen Abdul Mu'ti as an assessment to replace the National Examination (UN). For the SMA/SMK level, it will take effect this year, while the elementary and junior high school levels will only take part in foreign workers starting in 2026.

With a different approach, foreign workers aim to measure students' academic abilities more objectively and comprehensively. The results of foreign workers are not used as a graduation standard, but as a selection indicator to the next level of education, as well as equalization between education routes.

TKA participation is not mandatory for all students. However, for grade 12 high school/vocational high school students, the results of foreign workers can be used as an indicator of the selection of achievement pathway universities (SNBP).

In the first year of its implementation, the results of the TKA exam were in the spotlight after Mendikdasmen Abdul Mu'ti said the matetika value had fallen. The concern of many education activists is Abdul Mu'ti's statement that he seemed to blame the teacher.

President Prabowo Subianto made a statement of blaming the teacher when he visited SMPN 4 Bekasi City, Monday (17/11/2025). According to JPPI, this kind of statement is clearly a form of throwing responsibility and even blaming the other party.

"This is actually not surprising at all. Because the results of previous years' assessments also show the same data," said Ubaid Matraji.

If a bad value occurs in schools, according to Unaid, it is normal for problems to be attached to the school teacher. However, when the competence condition is bad, and the mathematical value is falling massively throughout Indonesia, JPPI suspects that there is an indicator of systemic failure managed by the state, not just the teacher's fault.

"When the mathematical value collapses nationally, the problem is not in the classroom, but in the policy formulation space. This is proof of system failure, not teacher failure," said Ubaid.

Ubaid emphasized that the government continues to ignore the root causes of problems that surround the world of teacherhood. He summarized at least three main problems.

First, there is a destructive teacher caste system, where there is structural discrimination between ASN teachers and honoraries, as well as between public and private teachers. JPPI considers this a policy that divides and weakens the dignity of the teacher profession.

"How is it possible that the quality of education is evenly distributed, if teachers themselves are treated unfairly? This caste system is an insult and the main obstacle to improving quality," said Ubaid.

Second, Ubaid also highlighted the teacher campuses which are Educational Personnel Education Institutions (LPTK) that act as teacher printers. According to him, the existence of LPTK has proven to fail to produce competent educators. He considers the government to allow this "factories" to be damaged, but instead blames his "product".

Erassing the teacher produced by the dilapidated LPTK is tyrannicalism. Without total reform of LPTK, the crisis of teacher quality will be an eternal legacy," he explained.

Finally, JPPI regrets the development of pseudo and unsustainable capacity for teachers. Teachers are required to be professional, but the state does not prepare a system and provides a systematic, tiered and sustainable professional development ecosystem.

Change ministers, change policies to improve teacher competence. This is exacerbated by the system which is not systematic and unsustainable. Teacher training programs are often just administrative and ceremonial projects. There is no real competency transformation," Ubaid explained.

Mugi Muryadi, a literacy activist, practitioner, and education observer, in his writings in Kompas also highlighted Abdul Mu'ti's statement. Several empirical studies, said Mugi, indeed support the idea that the competence of mathematical teachers in Indonesia still needs to be improved.

He referred to a meta-analysis by Sukri from the University of Indonesian Education (2023) which showed that although the competence of teachers contributed significantly to the results of student math learning (about 29.38 percent of achievement variations) there were still great variability between studies, signaling that factors other than teacher skills were also very influential.

Meanwhile, another study in Bandung by Gusmawan and Herman (2023) reported that mathematical teachers felt that their ability to present contextual learning was still at the level of "sufficient".

In addition, research by Kaerudin, Lestari, and Heryandi (2023) compared Indonesian mathematics books to Singapore's published ones, and found that Indonesian books tend to be monotonous in layouts and presentations, even though they already use contextual issues.

He also recommended that the government provide more intensive training, digital facilities in schools, and literacy campaigns for parents. To improve the quality of mathematics, said Mugi, Indonesia can learn from other countries.

Singapore, for example, uses real problem-based learning and technology integration in textbooks. The curriculum system provides a lot of space for creative and reflective thinking.

In Finland, as stated by Pasi Sahlberg in the Finnish Lessons (2021), teachers are given high autonomy and collaborative support through learning groups and reflections to strengthen pedagogists. Such models encourage numerical literacy and metakogontive thinking.

The absence of the value of TKA Math at SMA 2025 is not just a student problem or a question. This is a signal of a structural crisis, namely that the competence of teachers is not optimal, textbooks are less challenging, and education policies have not touched the roots of numeracy. National numeracy reform is not a dream if the strategy is changed now," concluded Mugi.