THE CURRICULUM MANAGEMENT MODEL FOR INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS IN PUBLIC PRIMARY EDUCATION: A DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION STUDY IN BANTEN PROVINCE, INDONESIA

Inclusive education requires a curriculum management model that is adaptive, effective, efficient, and practical to support the successful implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum in public primary schools. This study aims to develop and evaluate an inclusive school curriculum management model that is valid, practical, effective, efficient, and broadly applicable in public primary schools. Employing a research and development (R&D) approach based on Gall’s model (2003), the study involved ten expert validators (educational scholars, government officials, supervisors, and principals) and fifty practitioners from six inclusive public primary schools in Serang City and Regency. Data were collected using Likert-scale questionnaires and analyzed quantitatively through descriptive statistics and paired-sample t-tests. Expert validation indicated that the model achieved an “excellent” category in readability (90.12%), practicality (88.16%), effectiveness (91.20%), and efficiency (89.50%). Implementation testing with a one-group pretest–posttest design revealed significant improvements from pretest scores (M = 94.50; SD = 4.648) to posttest scores (M = 126.00; SD = 3.162), with p < 0.001 and a large effect size (Cohen’s d > 0.80). The POLCR-based curriculum management model for inclusive schools proved to be both valid and applicable in the context of public primary education, offering theoretical contributions to inclusive education management development and practical contributions to enhancing the capacity of teachers and principals.