Orthodox 'pesantren' evolves to modern school

Damar Harsanto and Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pesantren, Indonesia's Islamic boarding schools, have been under the spotlight since a recent string of terrorist attacks in the country. The Jakarta Post reporters Sri Wahyuni and Damar Harsanto visited a number of pesantren in East Java for a firsthand account of pesantren, Islamic education and terrorism. Additional reports can be found on the following page.

Few records are available on the early history of pesantren Islamic boarding schools on the islands of Java and Madura. What little information exists can be found in the sprawling and incomprehensive records of old writings that tell of the stoic lifestyle of the pesantren, their modest bamboo or wooden structures, the students' absolute devotion to the leaders, and their intensive study of classical books on Islam.

According to the Javanese texts Serat Cabolek and Centhini, several pesantren have served as major centers of Islamic education since the early 16th century. Most of these pesantren were established with the main objective to preserve Islamic teachings and disseminate Islam in society.

The spiritual and religious purposes of a pesantren outweigh any political or economic aims. People imbued with various qualities like virtuosity, deep spirituality, intellectuality and life skills are the expected product of the Islamic school educational system. Under this system, students, or santri, are measured by the number of books they have studied and the different Muslim clerics from whom they have received tutelage.

Most people thus have a general perception that pesantren graduates know more about religion compared to those who have never studied at a pesantren.

Before the 1960s, these Islamic schools were known as pondok (hut), where students also lived in order to fully absorb day- long lectures from the heads of the schools, who were religious leaders.

Devotion to the school head, which is often misunderstood as blind obedience, is an integral part of the education at pesantren as it enables the student to absorb all teachings from the head quickly and wholeheartedly, with an open mind and heart.

Each pesantren head offers a specific area of study and may place different emphases on aspects of Islamic teachings, and were often recognized from their area of expertise. Tremas Islamic School, for example, was popular for its Arabic grammar; Jampes School in Kediri for its tassawuf, while Tebuireng School in Jombang owed its fame to its head Hasjim Asyari, who was a master of the hadith.

Different clerics, each offering specific mastery of Islamic teachings, prompted students to wander from one Islamic school to another, seeking out diversity in their Islamic subjects and teachers.

One of the most noted pilgrim-scholars is Wahab Hasbullah, founder of the now 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama. Raised at the Tambakberas School in Jombang, he spent many years studying at different Islamic schools across the country as well as abroad. He studied at Pelangitan School in Tuban for one year, at Mojosari in Nganjuk for four years, at Cepaka for six months, at Tawangsari in Surabaya and Kademangan Bangkalan in Madura for three years each, at Banggrahan in Kediri for one year, four years at Tebuireng and finally, four years in Mecca.

A pesantren incorporates several main elements: A mosque, students, a religious leader or cleric known as kyai, classical texts, and a boarding house.

Most pesantren adapt well within the lives of the neighborhood locals, but most carefully guard their ideology and try to avoid being influenced by local cultures. In most cases, pesantren refer to Islamic schools in Mecca as the center of excellence in the Islamic educational system.

There are two types of pesantren, salaf and khalaf. Salaf pesantren usually teach religious studies only by using very traditional teaching methods (sorogan and wetonan). They are very dependent on their kyai, and the curriculum rests fully on the kyai's decision. To develop their knowledge, santri usually hold a discussion forum among themselves and will only go the kyai whenever they encounter difficulties. But there is no discussion during a lecture by a kyai; it's a monologue, rather than a dialog.

On the other hand, Khalaf, or modern pesantren, do not only teach religious studies and teachings but other subjects as well, including culture, the arts and sports. Life is also different from at a salaf pesantren, which usually has a more humble appearance and tends to be untidy and awkward. Modern pesantren are usually cleaner and more orderly.

Santri in salaf pesantren are usually allowed to cook for themselves, while those in modern pesantren are not. Instead, the latter provide their students with two meals daily.

There are variations in salaf pesantren. For example, some salaf pesantren allow their santri to attend either public school or madrasah (Islamic public school). Modern pesantren usually provide public school education for the santri. In other words, most modern pesantren have a madrasah, although the madrasah are not always managed or controlled by the same institution or foundation that manages the pesantren.

Madrasah are generally divided into three different types: General madrasah , madrasah diniyah (elementary school), and madrasah, which combines parts of the diniyah curricula and that of a general madrasah.

A general madrasah is basically the same as a public school. It adopts the same curriculum applied by other public schools. However, as it has the attributes of an Islamic school, it therefore places more emphasis on religious studies than do public schools. Extra religious subjects are usually taught during the time allocated for either compulsory local subjects or sports.

Madrasah diniyah, on the other hand, are not yet regulated. The Ministry of Religious Affairs, which oversees Islamic education in the country, does not have access to, nor the right, to supervise or accredit the school.

Most madrasah diniyah were established on the initiative of local communities to provide their children with extra religious studies. This is why students of a madrasah diniyah also study at public schools, since madrasah diniyah is usually conducted after school hours as an extracurricular activity.

There is also a type of madrasah that combines the systems of both madrasah diniyah and general madrasah. This type of madrasah usually designs its own curriculum. The Darussalam Gontor (Modern) Islamic boarding school in Ponorogo, East Java, is an example of this type of madrasah. It has its own curriculum while also adopting the classical methods of teaching, although its santri live in the pesantren compound. The pesantren and the madrasah, in this case, are an integrated entity.

When people talk about madrasah, they are most likely talking about the first type of madrasah (general madrasah), unless they mention a particular madrasah, for example the madrasah diniyah, or kuliatul mualimin (KMI), which is a madrasah like Gontor.

There are many other pesantren that apply the same system as Gontor, and some of these have received recognition from the government. Their graduates, for example, are considered to have the same level of education as those who have graduated from madrasah aliyah (senior high school), although they do not adopt the curriculum issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Pesantren Al-Mukmin in Ngruki of Surakarta, Central Java, the Darrun-Najjah in Jakarta, and Darrul Rahman are basically the same as Gontor in the sense that they do not adopt government- issued curricula, even though they teach general studies apart from religious ones.

--Sources: Dhoffier, Zamakhsyari (1982), Bruinessen, Martin van (1995), and notes from Syaiful Umam of the IAIN Syarief Hidayatullah's Center of Islamic and Community Studies, who is also former coordinator of a madrasah development project).