Education thinkers and practitioners are waiting and hoping for the emergence of innovation and improvement in national education, which has always been said to lag behind other countries.
By
Komaruddin Hidayat
·6 minutes read
Kompas
Komaruddin Hidayat.
The Education and Culture Ministry has got fresh blood with the appointment of Nadiem Makarim as minister, the number one person in charge of the development and direction of our national education. Education thinkers and practitioners are waiting and hoping for the emergence of innovation and improvement in national education, which has always been said to lag behind other countries.
In the midst of discussions on the important role of ultramodern technology to accelerate the enhancement and improvement of the quality of education in an era of disruption, there are fundamental values that must be maintained so as not to weaken, or even disappear, in the learning process of students. These are some of the fundamental values.
A touch of affection
The task of a teacher is not enough to just transfer scientific formulas to students, but must share love with them. Children who grow without affection will experience a deficit of affection, thereby making them difficult to love others.
Education thinkers and practitioners are waiting and hoping for the emergence of innovation and improvement in national education
We all have experiences that teachers, who successfully raise their students and are loved by their students up to their old age, are teachers who enter the class with their hearts and always spread love. With a soft heart a positive emotional relationship between teachers and students will be created.
Freedom of expression
Like a seed that stores the potential to grow into a big tree, every student must obtain an atmosphere of freedom of expression without fear of being wrong to convey his feelings and thoughts in order to grow according to their interests and talents.
A good teacher is one who is able to inspire and motivate students to explore thoughts and experiment actions in moral corridors that do not endanger themselves and disturb others. Teaching that is filled with command and prohibition formulas will kill enthusiasm and freedom of thought and stunt students’ growth.
Kompas
Some rooms at the Teacher Training University (STKIP) Ar-Rahmaniyah in Citayam, Depok, West Java as seen on Thursday (8/3). The university offers education from kindergarten up to university.
Joyful atmosphere
The results of neurological studies say that learning in a happy atmosphere will be more effective. Absorption of the brain widens like a stream of water, where much will be accommodated.
We all experience that when learning in an atmosphere of stress and fear, little information is absorbed. Therefore, the concept of joyful learning is now increasingly popularized without underestimating the meaning of discipline and responsibility.
In this case, education in Finland is a phenomenal example as it is the opposite of the militaristic learning atmosphere of China and Russia. The atmosphere of schools in Finland is mixed between learning and playing.
In fact, art lessons are also part of character education.
Characteristic building
No less important than what I have stated above is the character education. Any parent must have an obsession with sending their children to school not to simply obtain knowledge and diplomas, but also the intention that their children get character education.
Children familiarize themselves with and love honesty, work hard, respect parents and teachers, respect friends, obey social and legal norms. In short, in order to make children become good citizens in the eyes of parents and society, they must be responsible for themselves.
In fact, art lessons are also part of character education to smoothen feelings, sports education to form a sporty person who has a fighting spirit and mathematics to always think consistently, honestly.
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A student writes in Arabic as they learn Islamic scriptures at the islamic boarding school Lirboyo during the holy month of Ramadan on June 10, 2016 in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia. The Islamic boarding school, Lirboyo, was founded by KH Abdul Karim in 1910, and known to be one of the largest traditional "Pesantren" in Indonesia, with around 17,000 students in Kediri, East Java.
Implanting the value of spirituality
In Western society, spirituality is not always associated with religion. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, spirituality tends to be understood as the substance of religious values, as is commonly studied in Islamic tasawuf (mysticism).
In the social context, this spirituality draws closer to the appreciation of human values and divinity, freeing itself from worship in the material world. So, Western and Indonesian traditions have something in common, namely attention to the values of life that goes beyond the material world.
Critical, creative and innovative thinking
Considering that the world is constantly changing and has recently faced frequent disruptions, the world of education is a place for the actualization and formation of the potential of students to face their future, which is full of challenges and uncertainties.
Teachers who stop learning must stop teaching.
In other words, school is a place to read and predict the future of students, a world where parents or teachers will not enter. Therefore, in reality, those who have the need to always learn are not only students; no less important are teachers and parents as children will enter a world that their parents and teachers do not know and will not experience.
At our school, Madania School, there is an adage: “Teachers who stop learning must stop teaching.” Consequently, we always organize training, mentoring and coaching for our teachers.
Training and encouraging teachers to think critically, creatively and innovatively should be a daily agenda and commitment that is expected to become a habit and school culture. During this time, there appears an impression that the main agenda of a school only takes place in the classroom, then the final measure of its success is reflected in the report card in the form of numbers.
The teachers are burdened with administrative tasks that are so huge that they do not have time to read books and take part in training to enrich their scientific insights. They also rarely communicate personally with their students.
Social intelligence
An increasingly plural and interconnected social life, especially through social media, has prevented children from developing their social intelligence. Children spend more time with their gadgets than engaging in social activities.
Especially for the Indonesian people, who live amid the growth of a hybrid generation resulting from cross-ethnic marriages, children must be trained to skillfully communicate for the creation of social relations to strengthen Indonesian identity.
The Indonesian nation is still in the process of becoming. Ethnic ties and identities are increasingly loose, but the building and identity of the Indonesian nation as a shared house has not yet existed firmly.
Therefore, social intelligence education is not only limited to communication and empathic skills in an increasingly pluralistic society, but more than that, it should be given understanding and guidance to recognize the diversity of Indonesian society so that children are not uprooted from their cultural roots when entering global relations.
Ethnic ties and identities are increasingly loose.
What also must be considered is how to help students prepare themselves to enter the future, which is often called volatility, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA).
Therefore, we hope that Minister Nadiem Makarim can orchestrate, lead and empower cultural capital and the abundant assets of teachers and students to overcome the present backwardness of the education world.
Komaruddin Hidayat, One of the founder of Madania Indonesia Education Foundation.
