Islamic schools look to modernization
Islamic schools look to modernization
By Mochtar Buchori
JAKARTA (JP): For a sufficiently large part of the Moslem community in Indonesia, pesantren (the traditional Koranic school) and madrasah (the more recent version of Koranic school) still constitute the preferred institutions where parents send their children for formal education.
The reason for this tradition is either pedagogical, political, or both. Whatever the reason, it has been generally believed that the strong Islamic education offered at pesantren and madrasah have made students capable of restraining themselves from undesirable behavior, such as getting involved in students' brawls, the use and trafficking of drugs, or any other delinquent behavior. This is believed to be the positive aspect of the education in these schools.
The negative aspect is that these two institutions are generally considered rather "outdated" in their curricula and their educational practices. That is whenever they are compared to what is being carried out in schools with no official affiliation to Islam or any other religion.
It has been mentioned, for example, that science education is very weak in the madrasah schools, and almost non-existent in traditional pesantren institutions. Modern educational infrastructure and devices like a regularly updated library, language laboratory, science laboratory, and computer center can seldom be found in pesantren and madrasah. These particular weaknesses put graduates of pesantren and madrasah at a disadvantage when they have to compete against graduates of non- religious schools for entrance to higher education, and for employment in the modern sector of the economy.
To correct this weakness, many pesantren institutions and madrasah schools have embarked upon efforts to modernize themselves. They believe that by modernizing themselves they will be able to eliminate the handicaps faced by their students in society. They firmly believe that on the whole their students have the capacity, as far as intelligence and work ethos are concerned, to compete against graduates from non-religious schools.
It is the lack of basic knowledge in modern subjects and competence in the arts of inductive thinking that make them perform poorly in these two competitions.
Thus far, two steps that have been most frequently adopted to implement this modernization idea are the introduction (in the case of pesantren) or the expansion (in the case of madrasah) of mathematics and natural sciences in the curriculum, and the enrichment and improvement of English language instruction. It is these curricular and didactical features which markedly differentiate the "modern" from the "traditional" pesantren and madrasah.
Are these two steps alone capable of propelling pesantren and madrasah into modern educational institutions?
The answer depends, of course, on how the expression "modern educational institutions" is defined. If this term is defined superficially to denote educational institutions which merely exhibit the trappings of modern schools -- modern buildings, modern curricular, instruments and the mechanism of modern teaching methods, etc.-- then these two steps can be considered adequate as a start towards educational modernization. But if it is given a deeper meaning, and meant to refer to educational institutions which systematically train students to understand the meaning and the complexities of modern life, and to give them the basic capability to contribute to the solutions of problems that confront humankind in this modern time -- then "modernizing" an educational institution requires much more than these two steps.
Whatever definition one prefers to employ in this regard, any pesantren or madrasah wishing to modernize itself has to define for itself clearly and unambiguously the kind of educational modernity it wants to launch. It is this decision that will eventually dictate whether or not improvements in the instruction of mathematics, science, and English language will suffice as vehicles toward modern Islamic education in Indonesia.
Underneath this pedagogical question lies a philosophical question that hitherto has not been satisfactorily answered yet. It is the question about the kind of modernity that the Indonesian people in general want, and the kind of modernity that Indonesian Moslems in particular want.
Can we arrive at general and particular models of modernity that are really congruent?