A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS BETWEEN CURRICULUM OF 2013 AND MERDEKA CURRICULUM ON ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA NEGERI 1 AND SMA NEGERI 3 MALINAU
The study aimed to identify the differences in writing ability scores of students using the 2013 curriculum and the merdeka curriculum in class XI at SMAN 1 and SMAN 3 Malinau during the 2023/2024 academic year. This study employed a comparative causal method, involving 65 eleventh-grade stusents at SMAN 1 Malinau and 52 eleventh-grade students at SMAN 3 Malinau, which utilised the purposive sampling technique. The researcher used questions adapted from the TOEIC Writing Skills by Collins. In analysing the data, the researcher used SPSS 26.0. The average score of students at SMAN 1 Malinau was 68.62 (Level 3 TOEIC proficiency), (Level A1-Beginner) based on the CEFR level. Meanwhile, the average score of students at SMAN 3 Malinau was 44.42 (Level 2 TOEIC proficiency), (Level A1-Beginner) based on the CEFR level. The Mann- Whitney test results showed a P-value of 3.415, which is higher than the significance level of 0.05. The study results showed a difference in the average writing scores of SMAN 1 Malinau who used the 2013 Curriculum and those at SMAN 3 Malinau who used the Merdeka Curriculum.