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generally considered rather "outdated" in their curricula and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?