The Indonesian Experiences

After the downfall of Ottoman Empire the entire Muslim countries were completely dominated by Western Colonial countries, particularly British, French, Spanish, Dutch and so forth. Southeast Asian countries were ruled by the British and the Dutch. The British ruled Malaya and North Borneo, whilst the Dutch ruled Indonesia.

Dutch rule in Indonesia lasted for over three hundred years who used iron claws to suppress private schools that sought to establish carders to fight colonialists.

The establishment of Sekolah Tinggi Islam

Japan occupied Indonesia for three years, during which Dutch schools were totally closed down and replaced by Japanese curriculum including language of instruction. Indonesian fighters for Indonesian independence suggested that since all tertiary level of education were closed by Japanese, it is high time that Islamic higher institution of learning (Sekolah Tinggi Islam = STI) be established. The idea was suggested by Majlis Shura Muslimin Indonesia (Masyumi) along with the establishment of armed forces called Hizbullah (God's Party). The prominent personalities leading the school are :

1. Dr. Mohammad Hatta (Vice President) as chairman
2. Mr. Soewandi (Civil servant) as deputy chairman
3. Mohammad Natsir (later on became the first Prime Minister of Indonesia after independence) as secretary
4. Several other members of society such as Prof. R.A.A Hoesein Djajadingrat, Dr.Hidayat, Dr. Soekiman and many others were acting as members of executives.

The Sekolah Tinggi Islam started with four faculties i.e Law, Religion, Economics and Education. After independence, Religious faculty was sponsored by Ministry of religious affairs and became Government Institute religious of knowledge (Institute Agama Islam Negeri = IAIN) whose curriculum were planned by people graduated from Al Azhar. It is logical that the curriculum of IAIN in early days of its establishment was carbon - copy of faculties in Al Azhar before the latest reforms in 1961. The institute originally has three faculties like in Al Azhar, i.e Usuludin, Shariah and Arabic language, later they added faculty of tarbiyyah (education)

Organization like the Muhammadiyah during the Dutch rule even set schools using Dutch as a medium of instruction to compete with the schools established by the Dutch. Other organization such as Nahdatul Ulama (NU), Persatuan Islam(Persis) and Al -Irsyad continued to maintain "Pesantren" (religious training centre for Advanced Islamic Studies), "Madrasah" (Islamic schools) and "pondok"(Muslim boarding schools) which they had been managing, so much so that bumiputera (the son of the soil) children need not have to go to Dutch government schools for their education.

In the early fifties the government tried to set up schools for the training of religious teachers (Sekolah Pendidikan Guru Agama-PGA) by putting some of the exising "Madrasah" under the management of religious affairs. The objectives was to train religious teachers in government schools where religious knowledge was also taught. This was followed by the setting up of " Sekolah Guru Hakim Agama" (SGHA) to cater to the needs of the Muslim jurists both in Shariah and the State courts. The Muslim organizations and Muslim community alike were quite disappointed with the scope offered by both the PGA and SGHA.

Muslim organizations such as Muhammadiyah continued to be self reliant in the management of their schools. All they needed to do was to comply with the government regulations and current requirements. "Pesantren" too began to mushroom since the fifties. A press statement issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the later part of the seventies put the figure at 20,000 "Pesantren" with 9 million students. It is estimated that current figures have far exceeded these numbers in view of the 40% increasing of Indonesian population from 150 million in the seventies to a 220 million currently.

Rapid Development of Islamic schools

Among the factors that contributed to the rapid development of Islamic schools lately were:

1. The government inability to cater to the educational needs of all children. The problem therefore was partly resolved by the existence of private schools.
2. Dissatisfaction with the scope offered by the PGA and the SGHA in the fifties.The government, however, has been trying to improve the situation by:

i) Accepting the standard of " madrasah" so that they would be at par with public schools.
ii) Uplifting students of "madrasah" for admission into equivalent public schools at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels.
iii) Recognizing the private madrasah certificate as equivalent to the state (government) madrasah certificate to enable leavers of private madrasah to continue with their studies in equivalent government schools
iv) The influence of the Islamic revivalist phenomenon world wide, particularly the international Conferences of Muslim Education first held in Makkah 1977, Second in Islamabad 1980, Third in Dakka (Bangladesh), 1981, Fourth in Jakarta 1982, the Fifth in Cairo 1987 and Sixth in Makkah 1993 and the Seventh in South Africa 1996.

The conferences had deliberated on this religious education from elementary to tertiary level and produced guidelines for the implementation. How far Muslim countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have responded to these guidelines and implement them in their curriculum is yet to be seen. The International Conferences of Muslim Education mentioned above should be a stepping stone toward the unified religious curricular reforms in Muslim countries for the years to come.