02.17
dahlenausm
The development of Madrasah in Indonesia
until the 21st century
Regional Autonomy, Decentralization,
and Marketing Perspective
by:
Faculty of Teachers Training and
Education Studies (Fakultas Keguruan Ilmu Pendidikan) Universitas Islam
Sumatra Utara, Medan
ABSTRACT
The appearance of regional autonomy
policy and decentralization in education aims to provide opportunities to
educational participants to obtain skills, knowledge, and attitude which are
useful to society. Madrasah could respond to to sudden change in curriculum as
it does not exactly follow the national curriculum. As an educational
institution born out of societal needs, madrasah integration in society is
easier, as society participates more in madrasah operation. The involvement of
society is not only limited based to parents involvement, but also the wider
societal involvement. As in accordance with the spirit of decentralization
which takes in aspiration and participation of society, the involvement of
society at large is needed to develop and improve madrasah educational quality.
Using conceptual approach, this paper aims to chart a way forward for madrasah
to prosper in today’s age of regional autonomy, providing a marketing
perspective.
Keywords: madrasah, marketing
strategy, regional autonomy, decentralization
Introduction
Madrasah could be deemed a new
phenomenon among Islamic educational institutions in Indonesia. Its teaching
and learning has not yet been standardised from one region to another,
especially regarding curriculum and lesson plans. Effort to unite and
standardise the madrasah system has only been tried since the 1950 after
Indonesia obtained its independence. In its development madrasah is divided
into levels: Ibtidaiyah, Tsanawiyah and Aliyah. Madrasah is younger than
pesantren. The first madrasah was the Madrasah Manba'ul Ulum of the Surakarta
Kingdom in 1905 and the Adabiyah School founded by Syekh Abdullah Ahmad in West
Sumatra in 1909 (Malik Fadjar, 1998). Madrasah was founded to realize the
renewal of Islamic educational system by some concerned Muslim scholars. The
renewal, according to Karl Steenbrink (1986), consists of three things:
·
The
effort to perfect the pesantren educational system.
·
Adjustment
with Western education system, and
·
The
effort to bridge the traditional educational system with Western educational
system.
Madrasah as an Islamic educational
institution is now placed as a school under the national education system. The
signing of Joint Decision Letter (Surat Keputusan Bersama - SKB) of
three ministers (Religious Affairs, Education and Culture, and Interior)
indicated that the position of madrasah is strong enough to equal the position
of school. In addition the SKB was also deemed as a positive step to increase
the quality of madrasah from the aspects of status, degree value and curriculum
(Malik Fadjar, 1998). In one of the deliberation points for the SKB it was
stated that steps to increase madrasah educational quality needs to be
undertaken such that madrasah alumni could continue or transfer to common
schools from the primary to tertiary level.
This paper would elaborate briefly
the problems of madrasah in Indonesia, as well as regional autonomy, solution
to madrasah problems, and ends with a conclusion. Conceptual approach is used
to chart a way forward for madrasah to prosper in today’s age of regional
autonomy.
Problems of Madrasah in Indonesia
First, weak foundation, vague purpose,
irrelevant curriculum, unqualified teachers, hazy evaluation. Madrasah
education is imprecisely defined from primary to tertiary levels. According to
Moh. Raqib madrasah alumni is also not creative, gauged from the abundance of
unemployment among them as they prefer to become civil servant in which quota
is limited. This shows a lack of creativity to generate self-employment. This
lack of creativity often caused by the lack of emphasis on creativity in the
educational system.
Second, the lack of teacher’s professional
competence. The teachers, who are the most important component in an education
system, in general lack this competence.
Third, educational leaders who are weak
in communication and negotiation. They often do not have sufficient ability to
build internal communication with the teachers.
In addition of internal factors,
there are also external factors:
First, the discriminative treatment of
Islamic education system by the government. The fund allocation given by the
government to Islamic education is comparatively very little compared to the
funds given to non-Islamic education system.
Second, the bureaucrat’s paradigm on
Islamic education has been dominated by sectoral approach, not functional
approach. Islamic education is not considered as part of the education sector
as it is not under the Education and Culture Department.
Third, Islamic education institution is
the last alternative of many youths in society after they are not accepted in
non-Islamic educational institution. This view of society can certainly be an
indicator of their lack of trust of Islamic education system.
The position and role of Islamic
education with its variety of educational institution are still topics of
contention. Islamic education should be able to play its part as alternative
education promising a good future. But the fact remains, madrasah, school, and
Islamic higher education institution tend to affiliate with Islamic social
organization such as Muhammadiyah, NU, and Persis or Perguruan Islam
bodies/foundations.
It is hoped that there would be
efforts for schools and related institutions to create an ideal Islamic
education system to develop optimally spiritual, emotional and intelligence
quotients. The three of them are integrated in a virtuous circle, which then
create a new paradigm in society that Islamic schools are of good quality. As
such the discriminative attitude and the problem of educational quality could
slowly change. Certainly through the concept of integrated curriculum, the
education process could balance between religious studies and non-religious
studies.
Regional
Autonomy and Decentralization
The emergence of regional
autonomy policy and decentralisation aims to provide opportunity to educational
participants to obtain skills, knowledge, and attitude which can contribute to
society. Madrasah could also survive more in the fast-changing curriculum, as
it does not follow the national curriculum. The decentralization management
delegates responsibility to school to conduct teaching and learning process
according to local need. As such, madrasah could manage its activities without
central government intervention. Through teaching and learning based on local need,
curriculum is not burdened with unnecessary materials. The teaching and
learning process is hoped to be effective such that a higher achievement could
be obtained. The involvement of government in education caused madrasah
management to include additional programs to increase educational quality.
Remedial and course programs to increase cognitive, social and emotional
ability of students from low socio-economic background could be added.
Solution
to Madrasah Problems
Education is closely related to globalization.
There needs to be reforms in Indonesian madrasah, with the emphasis to create a
more comprehensive and flexible education, such that the graduates could
function effectively in a global democratic society. An alternative is to
develop madrasah with global vision (Zamroni, 2000: 90).
According to Rahman, the main
solution is the development of creative and dynamic as well as integrated
education system in which madrasah is a perfect vehicle. While Tibi wrote that
the main solution is secularization, which is the industrialization of a
society which means functional differential of social and religious system.
Marketing
Perspective
Madrasah, from a marketing
perspective, is an institution which serves customers in the form of students,
parents, and the public, collectively known as ‘stakeholder’. These
stakeholders must be provided a satisfactory service, as they have paid through
a variety of means, such as tuition fee, building investment fee, exam fee,
tax, and government’s school assistance. This service could be seen from a
variety of aspects, from infrastructure to human resource. A willingness to
view madrasah from a marketing perspective entails a willingness to be demanded
a satisfactory service by consumers. No longer acceptable are leaky roofs,
dirty toilets, dimly lit rooms, outdated computers, and unsafe environment.
Staff should be friendly, polite, and disciplined. Teachers should master their
subjects, update their knowledge, and able to motivate students. The end point
of all these aspects would be customer satisfaction, which would increase the
popularity of madrasahs as a preferred choice for primary to secondary
educational institution.
In the spirit of decentralization
which allows society to channel its aspiration and participate in education
quality development and improvement, society needs to have a high degree of
care of educational institutions in their vicinity. This could inculcate a high
degree of ownership through contribution in management, control, development,
and other forms of participation to make local community proud of educational
institution in their midst. The problem of madrasah arises due to forgetting of
its roots. There is dual interpretation. Madrasah is not an extension of
pesantren. On one hand, madrasah is identical with school because it has a
relatively similar curriculum with non-Islamic school. The solution of madrasah
problem is the policy taken to determine madrasah’s fate, which should not put
at a disadvantage its Islamic specialty in the short and long term.
There should be no more
discrimination between madrasah and school. The local government needs to pay
adequate attention. Eventhough all this while madrasah is under the control of
central government. If the current design of madrasah development is deemed
effective to achieve and maintain the vision, mission, and purpose of national
education, the Ministry of Religious Affairs need to optimalize coordination
with Education Council and School Committee, in addition of increasing accountability.
Madrasah as an educational institution from, by, and for the society has not
obtained fully our attention. The increase in educational quality would not be
realized without the participation of all parties. As such, madrasah needs to
be helped, defended and fought for. A marketing perspective, such as elaborated
in this paper, needs to be discussed and debated among all
stakeholders.
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