The impact of the removal of information and communication technology subjects on students' digital literacy

: This study aims to find out how the perception of class XI MA Darul Irfan students in Serang City about the abolition of ICT subjects, and also to determine the level of digital literacy skills of students in class XI MA Darul Irfan Serang City after the abolition of ICT subjects. The type of research used in this research is qualitative. Qualitative research is research that intends to understand the phenomena experienced by research subjects such as behavior, perception, motivation by means of descriptions in the form of words and language. So, in this study researchers conducted observations, interviews and documentation. The results of the study show that: 1) ICT subjects are very important for students in schools to face the current digital era so that students are not ignorant in using technology. 2) the ability of students to find, manage, and convey information through digital is already high. Students prepare to take advantage of digital literacy in learning is already high. The ability of students to think critically, creatively and innovatively in the use of technology is still low. Student participation in digital literacy activities is quite high.


Introduction
Learning without technology is impossible in this modern era.As we know that ICT and education are inseparable (Nanjundaswamy et al., 2021;Sudarmo et al., 2021).The increase in modern technology certainly has a positive impact on the world of education, namely as a medium to support the success of teaching and learning activities.Technological progress will always develop very quickly, therefore its development needs to be followed (García de Arquer et al., 2021;Litvinenko, 2020).
Information technology is an electronic device that functions to process data so that it can process, store information and even send quality information, information that is relevant, accurate and timely (Ganbold et al., 2021;Mehmood, 2021;Putra Tampi et al., 2022).Information technology can be used for personal, educational, business and government purposes (He et al., 2021).Information technology is also a strategic information tool for decision-making.Knowledge or literacy is part of one of the prerequisites for community readiness in optimising the role of ICT for their lives.Knowledge is needed because it is a form of mental readiness that is able to provide direction for each individual to gain benefits through the use of information and communication technology.Theoretically, to reach the level of ICT-Literacy must go through several stages, one of which is digital literacy (Potyrała & Tomczyk, 2021;Vodă et al., 2022).
The education curriculum in Indonesia changes every five years.In the current school year, the curriculum that applies in the Indonesian education system is the 2013 curriculum (Simanjuntak, 2020).It is unfortunate that in this 2013 curriculum, ICT subjects were eliminated and only used as guidance even though these subjects are very important for the development of the nation's generation in this digital era so that high digital literacy is needed so that students in Indonesia are able to learn ICT individually (Charfeddine & Umlai, 2023).
One of the schools that implemented the 2013 curriculum is MA Darul Irfan Serang City, where ICT learning was eliminated.The school hopes that with the elimination of this ICT subject, students will be able to learn independently to improve their ability to use ICT, and utilise digital literacy media to facilitate learning activities at school.Although ICT is removed from the curriculum, the school still facilitates students to be active in digital literacy activities by allowing students to bring smartphones or laptops and providing free wi-fi to be accessed by all students (Säily et al., 2021).However, in reality, these facilities are not well utilised by students.Therefore, teachers need to pay special attention to students in the use of digital literacy media.
Based on the background of the problem, the problem formulations raised in this study are: 1) How are students' perceptions of the abolition of ICT subjects; 2) How is the level of students' digital literacy skills after the abolition of ICT subjects.The objectives of this study are as follows: 1) Knowing students' perceptions about the abolition of ICT subjects at MA Darul Irfan Serang City; 2) Knowing the level of students' digital literacy skills after the elimination of ICT subjects at MA Darul Irfan Serang City.

Methods
This research uses qualitative methods (Nassaji, 2020).According to (Yadav, 2022), Qualitative research is research that intends to understand phenomena about what is experienced by research subjects such as behaviour, perceptions, motivations, actions etc., holistically, and in a descriptive way in the form of words and language, in a special natural context and by utilising various natural methods.
The data collection was carried out by interviews and observations so as to be able to dig deeper into students' perceptions of the removal of ICT subjects on digital literacy of class XI MA Darul Irfan Serang City.This research reveals facts that already exist in MA Darul Irfan, Serang city.Analysis in this study uses qualitative analysis, namely using data collected through interviews or observations regarding the problems studied in the field.This research uses research instruments as a tool so that research activities run systematically and structured, in data collection is done in several ways (Huck & Zhang, 2021).Researchers used 3 data collection techniques namely: 1) observation; 2) interview; 3) documentation.

Results and discussions
MA Darul Irfan itself has implemented the 2013 curriculum, where there is no ICT learning in the classroom.However, the school assisted by teachers continues to try to insert things related to ICT during learning, so that students can feel the benefits of using technology in obtaining information.ICT is an important element that includes all technical equipment to convey and deliver information.In the meantime, ICT subjects have been removed by the government from the list of subjects.Subject Deletion It is undeniable that the development of information technology greatly affects communication technology.Information and communication technology seems to be inseparable, so it is not only students who are required to learn and understand ICT, but teachers and school officials at MA Darul Irfan must also participate in learning and utilising ICT properly.
Digital literacy activities of class XI MA Darul Irfan students have been running well, where during classroom learning, both teachers and students have used digital media as learning tools.The use of this media can help students find information which will then become material in learning.For teachers, the use of digital media is enough to help facilitate the process of delivering information or teaching materials to students in a more innovative and interesting way and help teachers in finding teaching materials that are not available in textbooks.Students are more interested in learning with the help of digital media because learning resources are very diverse, thus facilitating the process of finding information, plus with the help of media such as laptops and infocus, teachers can develop their creativity in delivering subject matter by inserting images, videos, or sounds that make the learning atmosphere not boring.Based on the research, the following results were obtained: 1) Informaion Literacy: students' ability to find, manage, and convey information through digital is high.
2) Learning Skills: Students' preparation to utilise digital literacy in learning is high.
3) ICT Literacy: Students' ability to think critically, creatively and innovatively in the use of technology is still low.4) Communication and Collaboration: Student participation in digital literacy activities is already quite high.

Conclusions
Based on the results of research that has been conducted by researchers regarding "The Impact of the Elimination of ICT Subjects on Digital Literacy of Class XI MA Darul Irfan Serang City Students, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) The removal of ICT lessons from school subjects for class XI MA Darul Irfan students has a huge impact on the use of technology.Because, students feel that ICT lessons are very important in this digital era.The students argue that learning ICT will facilitate their activities in everyday life, especially in education.By studying ICT, students not only know how to use technology, but they will know the components and functions of a technology, and they can think creatively and innovate on a technology.2) The school's efforts in implementing the digital literacy programme for students continue to progress.With this digital literacy, the learning atmosphere becomes more colourful and less boring, because in its application teachers use media to insert images, videos or audio visuals in their learning.In an effort to improve digital literacy for grade XI students, researchers found that: a) Students' ability to find, manage and convey information to others through digital literacy activities is high.b) Students' preparation in utilising digital literacy is high.c) The ability to think critically, creatively and make innovations through digital literacy is still low.d) Students' ability to actively participate in digital literacy activities is quite high.This activity has obstacles in school facilities and infrastructure, so digital literacy activities at MA Darul Irfan Serang City are still not optimal.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Qualitative Research Stages The location of this research is at MA Darul Irfan Serang City.The basis for determining the location is because the school implements the 2013 curriculum in its teaching and learning activities.With the research time taking place in the even semester of the 2022/2023 school year, namely in September 2022.The population in this study were students of class XI MA Darul Irfan Serang City, with a sample of 4 people consisting of 1 teacher and 3 students of class XI MA Darul Irfan Serang City.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Students' level of digital literacy