Education is an activity held with a long-term orientation to prepare generations to be able to manage life in their time. The Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia organizes education in madrasah to prepare graduates who will have to manage 21st century life. To achieve this readiness, quality competencies are needed. Therefore, it is necessary to project the improvement of the competency quality of Indonesian students. The government, in particular the Ministry of Religion, is obliged to oversee the quality of madrasah student competence through the AKMI (Indonesian Madrasah Competency Assessment). AKMI is a substitute for the national exam for madrasah students. If previously the Ministry of Religion was head to the Ministry of Education and Culture in making exam questions, this year the Ministry of Religion has initiated the Ministry of Religion’s version of the drafting team in the form of AKMI.

AKMI is one of the breakthrough programs in order to improve the competency quality of madrasah students in Indonesia. This assessment was developed by Component 2 of the Madrasah Reform of the Ministry of Religion. AKMI is designed to help teachers obtain accurate information about students’ competencies in reading literacy, numeracy literacy, scientific literacy, and socio-cultural literacy. Through AKMI, it is hoped that teachers will better understand what needs to be done to improve the quality of teaching and learning, which in turn will improve student learning outcomes. With the existence of AKMI, the Ministry of Religion will have a strong diagnostic base to determine Madrasa education quality policies, improve learning quality, increase teacher capacity, and build a learning culture.

The International Conference on Madrasah Reform (ICMR) is an annual conference as a forum for the dissemination of assessment results using instruments developed in AKMI activities. ICMR 2021 keynotes came from the US, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, and Indonesia, while the presenters came from Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. In this Conference, the results of the analyses of the AKMI conducted by the AKMI Team and relevant parties will be presented and disseminated to a broader audience and determine the results of the achievements or competencies of madrasah students based on the overall results of the assessment, both at the national and provincial levels. In addition, various perspectives and results of research in the same area will be presented including best practice in the education assessment from the perspectives of policy makers, relevant stakeholders, education experts and activists, madrasah teachers, and other related parties.

We would like to thank the Ministry of Religious Affairs Indonesia and the World Bank for their support in ICMR 2021. We also would like to presenter (keynote speaker, invited speaker, and parallel presenter) for your active contributions to share your findings through this conference. We would like to express our gratitude to the reviewers for their dedications, comments and suggestions hence the accepted papers have met the international proceeding standard. Eventually, we gratefully acknowledge the committee members, individuals and sponsors for their support in ICMR 2021. We sincerely wish for your research and knowledge to be enriched.