Islamic Schools Not Yet Fully Embracing Sharia Financial Services
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Islamic educational institutions are considered not yet fully embracing Sharia financial services. A number of school payments and educational transactions still largely use conventional bank services.
Halal content creator, Dian Widayanti, said she still finds Islamic schools using payment services through conventional banks. “My children go to Islamic schools, but the payments are made via virtual accounts from conventional banks,” Dian said during a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) titled “Beyond Awareness: From Lifestyle to Inclusion”, which was held by Republika together with FoSSEI as part of the Road to ISF 2026 series on Wednesday (13/5/2026).
According to her, this condition shows that the Sharia ecosystem in the educational environment is not yet strong enough. In fact, schools are considered important places to build habits of using Sharia services from an early age.
Dian said that many educational institutions are still concerned that using Sharia services will make it difficult for parents who do not yet have Sharia bank accounts.
As a result, the use of conventional services remains the primary choice in daily educational activities. Similar criticism was also conveyed by Muhammad Rido, a student at UIN Sunan Kalijaga. He said that the campus environment is still dominated by conventional services.
“If we look at financial institutions on campus, they are still using conventional finance, such as for tuition fee payments,” said Rido.
Data from the OJK shows that the level of Sharia financial literacy and inclusion in the student segment is still below the national average. The index of Sharia financial literacy among students and university students was recorded at 40.49 percent, while its inclusion rate is only 10.81 percent.
The Assistant Director of the OJK’s Sharia Financial Literacy and Inclusion Group, Asadulloh Sefnado, said that access to services is still the main challenge in increasing the use of Sharia products.
Therefore, the OJK has begun encouraging schools, universities, and workplaces to provide Sharia-compliant payment and salary options.
“When there is a conventional payroll system, then access should also be provided if we want a Sharia option,” said Sefnado.
According to the OJK, ease of access and proximity of services to daily activities are important factors in increasing Sharia financial inclusion among young people.