Chapter 3. Character Education
5. Indonesia – brief overview of current situation
5.1 Character Education Pilot Program 2010 – 2012
Pilot Program on Character Development in Indonesia2011-201218
The Ministry of Education and Culture conducted and evaluated a Character Development pilot program in 44 schools in 2010-12. The program was based on 18 universal values which were regarded as relevant to the school context (e.g. responsibility; self-discipline) and schools were supported to implement an integrated across-the-curriculum approach, mapping where character development could be addressed in curriculum and school organisation and activities and identifying the nature of support materials and training that could assist teachers.
There was no intention to use the pilot program to develop a national syllabus but the findings of the pilot could be useful for a national approach to integrated approach to character education. The pilot also identified how character development could be included into personal development and local content, using local cultural and development activities such as scouting, camping and creative and performing arts.
Training for the integrated approach to Character Development was conducted in all Provinces in 2011 and 2012 and in about 400 districts. This was mainly awareness and information-giving.The schools in the pilot program received regular visits from a mentor and opportunities to network with other schools in the pilot. The assessment of character development in the pilot program was a very challenging task.A number of school-level indicators and proxies were developed for the 18 values.
These covered aspects of school climate, physical appearance of the school and classrooms and degree of interaction in lessons. Strategies were also developed for consistent reporting and analysis of unacceptable behaviour (e.g. incidence of bullying, fighting).Of the schools that had reached their third year of implementation in the evaluation, 75% showed improvement on teacher ratings of the indicators.
Lessons learned from the Pilot program were that -
(i) Implementation of the approach requires a comprehensive awareness program followed by extensive training and
support.Many schools that had a high level of awareness and commitment still required a great deal of support and resources. Curriculum officers estimated that about 6 visits per year were needed to optimise the program.
(ii) Character Education takes time to embed in schools. Even certificated teachers are not currently addressing this in their classrooms. Observation of the program underscored the importance of teachers’ own values and behaviour. This was identified in the evaluation as the most important factor but there is no established culture nor process in schools for teachers to be told how to behave. “Teachers agree that they must model the behaviour they expect, but this clearly does not happen in many schools - teachers smoke at school, are late, are absent and don’t make an effort to prepare lessons or teach in accord with the curriculum”.
(iii) The approach to character education must involve parents and community and there should be an integrated approach across GoI – human development is a responsibility of many ministries and agencies.
(iv) Monitoring and Evaluation is an important but extremely challenging task. More expertise is needed for assessment in the non-cognitive domain.
5.2 Religious Education in Indonesia
The objectives of religious education for all students are embodied in the Education law No 20 of 2003 which includes “the objective of developing students’ potential to become individuals who are faithful to the One Almighty God, having noble characters, and being healthy, knowledgeable, skilful, creative and independent and will grow to be democratic and responsible citizens”.
Box 8. Indonesian Character Development Pilot Program 18 Universal Values
religiosity honesty tolerance self-discipline hard-working creativity independence democratic curiosity
spirit of nationalism patriotism
appreciating achievements friendliness/communications peace-loving
love of reading
environmental awareness social awareness
responsibility
Source: Ministry of Education and Culture
Indonesia has both religious schools, providing education to about 15% of the school-aged population, and general (secular) schools in which 85% of the school aged population are educated. By law, all schools must provide religious education according the faith of the students. Islamic religion is by far the majority religion in Indonesia, with almost 90% of the population identifying as Muslim. The purpose of Islamic religious education is to develop Muslims who are committed to the realisation of Islamic principles. Given that the great majority of Muslim students are in general schools, the quality of religious education is an important issue.
A review of Religious Education in Schools in Indonesia19 was commissioned by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to look at the relationship of religious education in schools to the development of attitudes of tolerance and inclusion, to investigate the appropriateness of curriculum, materials and pedagogy and to make recommendations about curriculum, resources and teacher training and support to deliver Islamic religious education which promotes religious tolerance and peace within a pluralistic society.
The review found that formal religious teaching “tended to be normative, doctrinal, ideological and traditional” with little opportunity for students to think critically and discuss issues relating to daily life. On the other hand, informal religious teaching, delivered by persons outside the school such as Student Spiritual Mentors (ROHIS) and clerics (ustadz) tended to be more dynamic, but also showed a trend towards more exclusive and extremist views. Students in the study reported that often their teachers in other subjects provided better religious education through discussing subject issues with Islamic messages and themes.
Issues and problems impeding better quality in religious education included –
• Low competence of teachers; use of lecturing and rote learning methods; poor selection methods at entry to teacher training; little or no opportunity for practice teaching and feedback in teacher training; few opportunities for professional development on the job.
• Lack of relevant and engaging curriculum and enrichment materials for teacher training and for use in schools.
Teachers will now get more assistance from the new curriculum for religious education which specifies knowledge, skills and attitudes and learning activities for Islamic religious education and other religions (Budhist, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant and Konghucu). The new curriculum has also allocated additional lesson time for religious education in both primary and junior secondary schools but the increase in lesson time for religion may have little positive impact on students’ character development if the quality of teaching religion remains low.
5.3 Kurikulum 2013
In brief, the recent reform of the curriculum in Indonesia was focussed on the goal that students at each level of education would develop the competencies and personal attributes that are needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In addition, the new curriculum was a response to concerns that were being raised about the curriculum. These concerns included that the existing curriculum put too much emphasis on rote learning of content areas and too little on interactive and contextualised learning and assessment;
that there was too little emphasis on character development and the unique culture and identity of Indonesia; that violence was increasing, particularly in the higher grades, that teachers were struggling to design and deliver quality programs of learning through the model of school-based curriculum development in an over-crowded curriculum, with too few teaching hours.
The new curriculum included many changes in content and structure to meet the issues summarised above, including an increase in lesson hours which has been allocated entirely to the non-cognitive domain:
Figure 32. Table of lesson hours allocated to the non-cognitive domain
Level Character elements Old Curriculum Kurikulum 2013
Primary Total increase 4 lessons per week 26 – 32 lessons 30 -36 lessons
Religion 3 4
Civics 2 5 - 6
PE/Health 4 4
Culture 4 4
Self-Development 2 -
Junior Secondary Total increase 6 lessons per week 32 38
Religion 2 3
Civics 2 3
PE/Health 2 3
Local Content/Craft 2 4
Culture 2 3
Source: Ministry of Education and Culture
In addition to extra lessons for religion, the new curriculum makes very explicit statements of knowledge, skills and attitude requirements. In the primary curriculum, subjects are integrated in extended units of work on a particular theme.In the junior secondary school, the traditional subjects have remained but the introduction to units includes more explicit statements about the attitudes to be developed.
It is clear from the text books and teacher handbooks that new curriculum has the intention to more intensively develop students’ non-cognitive abilities however at the present time teachers are struggling with its implementation and it will require a great deal more support and time before the objectives of the new curriculum can be realised.Logistical problems have marred the implementation process of the new curriculum. In particular the training model does not reach every teacher and the centrally managed textbook development and distribution has resulted in materials being delayed to many schools. Although teachers have been offered textbooks on disc, their limited access to printers and the high cost of photocopying are significant barriers to accessing the material.
Putting aside the implementation problems, it is clear that teachers must now think about the non-cognitive skills to be developed and structure activities in their lessons for students to talk about and develop these.
For example in Grade 4, under the theme of Caring for All Living Beings, the Teacher Handbook expresses the objectives as: to develop scientific and analytical skills; to develop higher level thinking skills, problem solving and enquiry skills, creativity and a reflective personality. The Teacher’s Handbook contains assessment ideas, remedial and enrichment activities, and ideas for engaging parents in the curriculum at home. The difficulty for teachers may be that too many character traits are assigned to each lesson theme and that the assessment (via rating scales that have been provided for each learning area in the thematic module) will become a burden.
Box 9. Character development – Sample integrated lesson planning guide from Kurikulum 2013
Source: Ministry of Education and Culture
At this stage of implementation it is too early to assess whether teachers will be able to deliver the curriculum and undertake the assessment as intended in either the cognitive or non-cognitive domains. A systematic, independent review should be undertaken at the end of the first year of implementation to assess progress and whether any adjustments need to be made to the model and the implementation plan.