Ministry of Religious Affairs Involves 4,700 Madrasah Supervisors in 'Love-Based Curriculum' Implementation

The Ministry of Religious Affairs reported that 4,700 madrasah supervisors across Indonesia will be involved in overseeing the implementation of the Love-Based Curriculum (KBC), which is one of the priority programmes of Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar. “Supervisors are the best people to safeguard the quality of madrasah education. Education must give birth to love, not hatred,” said Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar in a statement in Jakarta on Wednesday. To mark the beginning of the movement, a KBC Pocket Book for Madrasah Supervisors was launched. This pocket book has been integrated with Madrasah Digital Supervision (MDS) as an instrument for mentoring and supervising the implementation of KBC. The Minister of Religious Affairs invited all madrasah supervisors to oversee the implementation of KBC in a sustainable manner. Supervisors hold a strategic position in ensuring that character-strengthening programmes run effectively in educational units. “If all the holy books, including the Quran, were condensed into one word, then that word would be love,” said the Minister. According to him, the implementation of KBC will have a positive impact on the madrasah and pesantren environment. He stated that the culture of brawling, bullying, physical violence, and various forms of intolerance must continue to be suppressed by strengthening education based on the values of compassion. Nasaruddin Umar previously stressed the importance of strengthening a religious education curriculum based on ecotheology, which emphasises the relationship between humans, nature, and God in a unified consciousness of values. The Minister explained that this spiritual concept can build a relationship of mutual love between humans and each other, the universe, and God as an inseparable unity. “Ecotheology is the awareness that must arise in every person to love fellow human beings, to love the universe, and at the same time, humans and nature also love their God. This is like a love triangle,” he said.