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Indonesia Islamic Schools
The emphasis on the Pancasila in public schools has
been
resisted by some of the Muslim majority. A distinct but
vocal
minority of these Muslims prefer to receive their
schooling in a
pesantren or residential learning center. Usually
in rural
areas and under the direction of a Muslim scholar,
pesantren
are attended by young people seeking a detailed
understanding of
the Quran, the Arabic language, the sharia, and Muslim
traditions
and history. Students could enter and leave the
pesantren
any time of the year, and the studies were not organized
as a
progression of courses leading to graduation. Although not
all
pesantren were equally orthodox, most were and the
chief aim
was to produce good Muslims.
In order for students to adapt to life in the modern,
secular
nation-state, the Muslim-dominated Department of Religious
Affairs
advocated the spread of a newer variety of Muslim school,
the
madrasa. In the early 1990s, these schools
integrated
religious subjects from the pesantren with secular
subjects
from the Western-style public education system. The
less-than 15
percent of the school-age population who attended either
type of
Islamic schools did so because of the perceived higher
quality
instruction. However, among Islamic schools, a
madrasa was
ranked lower than a pesantren. Despite the
widespread
perception in the West of resurgent Islamic orthodoxy in
Muslim
countries, the 1980s saw little overall increase in the
role of
religion in school curricula in Indonesia.
In general, Indonesia's educational system still faced
a
shortage of resources in the 1990s. The shortage of
staffing in
Indonesia's schools was no longer as acute as in the
1950s, but
serious difficulties remained, particularly in the areas
of teacher
salaries, teacher certification, and finding qualified
personnel.
Providing textbooks and other school equipment throughout
the farflung archipelago continued to be a significant problem as
well.
Data as of November 1992
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