PBNU Chairman: Pesantren Implement Comprehensive Education Model

Banjarbaru (ANTARA) - Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU) KH Yahya Cholil Staquf, known as Gus Yahya, has said that pesantren implement a comprehensive education model by developing students’ physical health, intellectual capacity, and spiritual closeness in a balanced manner.

Gus Yahya said pesantren inherit an educational tradition that not only attends to the physical and intellectual aspects but also gives attention to the spiritual as an important part of shaping a complete human being.

“Physical education is directed towards building a healthy and strong body, while intellectual education is carried out by filling and sharpening thinking skills through various knowledge so that students grow into intelligent individuals,” he said at the Gerakan Nasional Pesantrenku Aman event at Darul Ilmi Islamic Boarding School in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, on Tuesday.

He emphasised that thinking skills are needed so that students are able to find solutions to the various problems faced in life, so that education does not stop at the mere mastery of knowledge.

He asserted that spiritual development is an important part because human beings are not only built from body and intellect, but also possess a spirit that needs to be guided so that they are able to find the path to draw ever closer to Allah SWT.

He said the rapid pace of change in the times makes the need for knowledge increasingly diverse, so students need to understand various fields of science in order to face a life that continues to change.

Moreover, he said, male and female students now not only study the Qur’an, fiqh, and other religious sciences, but also mathematics, physics, biology, and various other fields of knowledge needed when students enter life in the wider community.

“Therefore, male and female students must understand various kinds of good things, so that we do not become strangers in the midst of society,” said Gus Yahya.