Jakarta, February 22, 2022 — The Indonesian Language Proficiency Test (UKBI) Adaptif Merdeka has massively used after launched at the end of January 2021 by Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Mendikbudristek) Nadiem Anwar Makarim. Thus, the Agency for Language Development and Cultivation undertook National Dissemination of Language Proficiency event on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. This event is intended to increase the commitment to advance the language and literature.
Local governments, teachers and education staff, students, as well as communities, and linguists in Indonesia, who have actively used and received benefits from the UKBI Adaptif Merdeka, attended in the dissemination on hybrid meeting. “the UKBI really has high validity, tests a person’s language skills and proficiency according to his character, according to his competence,” stated Head of Agency for Language Development and Cultivation (Badan Bahasa) E. Aminudin Aziz when opening the dissemination event virtually.
The Head of Badan Bahasa told that UKBI Adaptif Merdeka has followed by 168,464 testee after launched officially. This number is quite fantastic, an addition of around 100,000 participants in the last 1 year. “This is an extraordinary achievement. I congratulate to the UKBI team for this achievement and appreciate for the contribution has made,” he said.
This achievement cannot be separated from all local governments and stakeholders role in the primary, secondary, and higher education, including ministries/agencies that have used the UKBI as a competency test device.
Meanwhile, Head of Center for Cultivation of Language and Literature, Agency for Language Development and Cultivation, Abdul Khak, delivered a presentation entitled “Policy on Indonesian Language Proficiency”. He said that regulation support for Indonesian language proficiency is needed. It based on the conditions of the testee or beneficiaries. “For example, in the education department, schools can encourage students actively and massively participate in the UKBI. Free of charge,” he insisted.
In the best practice discussion session, Head of State Junior High School 2 Papua, Imelda, expressed her joy after using the UKBI Adaptif Merdeka at the school where she leads. “My hope, the Agency for Language Development and Cultivation will regularly organize the dissemination of the UKBI used in any type of schools so that more students can measure the proficiency of their Bahasa and, of course, get good benefits,” she expected.
Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Diponegoro University, Nurhayati, said that in terms of proficiency measurement in the use of the Indonesian language, especially for college students, the test was not only grammar tested for the public, but also had to be disseminated for lecturers in faculties.
“By using the Indonesian language properly, college students will be more confident. They will be able to express what they want to,” Nurhayati explained.
Furthermore, a representative of a professional association, Bahrul Hayat added that as a test the UKBI instrument has a solid theoretical base, has used psychometric analysis, and has a standardized rating scale. “In addition, UKBI has paid attention to administration test by using a sophisticated system and has made the measured variables descriptions. All of these are the characteristics of qualified and modern tests,” he revealed.
The positive benefits of the UKBI are also got by users in the field of journalism. Teguh Priyanto from LKBN Antara said, “The new breakthrough from the UKBI has become an instrument that help to refine the participants of basic journalists so that we don’t have to do the Indonesian language test anymore.”
On the same occasion, Head of the Education Department of Special Capital Region of Jakarta, Nahdiana, conveyed on the use of the UKBI in her department. “the UKBI is very important to evaluate language skills, to motivate educators and students to use Indonesian language properly and correctly so that they can avoid misperceptions due to language mistakes,” she remarked.
As the closing of the series of National Dissemination of Language Proficiency events, Head of Center for Cultivation of Language and Literature handed over book of the Map of Indonesian Language Proficiency to Head of the Education Department of Special Capital Region of Jakarta symbolically. The book contains (1) a map of national scale of Indonesian language proficiency, (2) a map of provincial level of Indonesian language proficiency, (3) an index of Indonesian language proficiency, and (4) recommendations of language proficiency policy.
There are four language proficiencies in the UKBI, namely listening, reading, writing, and speaking. In addition, there is a section on responding to language rules that examines participants’ proficiency in applying Indonesian language formal rules. The discourse in the UKBI, both listening and reading, is based on the context of everyday language use. Hence, the UKBI test items are arranged based on the cognitive and the knowledge dimension. For UKBI services, please visit the UKBI Adaptif Merdeka page on ukbi.kemdikbud.go.id.
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Translated by Muhammad Erwin Darma