The Implications of the 'Merdeka Belajar' (Freedom to Learn) Curriculum for Student Character Development in the Christian Religious Education Subject for Class VIII.10 at SMPN-2 Palangka Raya

The Merdeka Curriculum emphasizes student-centered learning, competency development, and character formation. This study examines its implications for student character development in Christian Religious Education (CRE) among Grade VIII.10 students at SMPN-2 Palangka Raya and identifies supporting and inhibiting factors. A descriptive qualitative approach was employed. Data were collected through observation, interviews with the CRE teacher, the vice principal for curriculum, and students, as well as school-document analysis. The data were analyzed through collection, reduction, display, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicate that character development is reflected in three interconnected dimensions: moral knowing, moral feeling, and moral action. Students demonstrated understanding of Christian values, including love, honesty, discipline, responsibility, patience, humility, forgiveness, and care for others; affective internalization through conscience, empathy, self-control, and willingness to accept correction; and practical application through helping others, praying, respecting teachers and peers, maintaining cleanliness, completing tasks, and forgiving. Supporting factors include teacher competence and role modeling, school leadership, positive school culture, family support, facilities, student motivation, and learning resources. Inhibiting factors include uneven curriculum understanding and teacher readiness, differences in student characteristics, inconsistent family support, peer influence, distracting technology use, and facilities that still require improvement. The study concludes that curriculum flexibility contributes to character formation when learning is consistently reinforced by modeling, habituation, and student guidance.