Dualistic/integral: The transformation of the madrasa into a national education system (1975-1989)

Based on the online version of the Great Dictionary of Indonesian Language (KBBI), madrasa are Islamic knowledge-based school. Pesantren, Islamic reform movement, and the western education system is an important factor for the exsistence of madrasas in Indonesia. The dualism existence between the traditional pesantren education system with the western education system has encouraged the modernist Muslim group to establish an Islamic educational institution called madrasa. Therefore, madrasas in Indonesia are defined as modern Islamic educational institution resulting from a combination of the pesantren education system and the western education system. This research will cover the process of separation of Islamic education from a western education project as well as the background of the dualistic education system in Indonesia. The dualistic education system itself is the implementation of the education system under two different government institutions. The Ministry of Education and Culture supervises public education institutions, while the Ministry of Religion oversees Islamic education institutions. The existence of madrasas in the dualistic education system that continue until the day Indonesia proclaimed its independence, led to a strong reaction from Muslims that prompted the government to integrate madrasas into the national education system (the integral education system) through a series of policies. This chapter traces back the process of madrasa transformation from the dualistic education system to the integral education system during the New Order period. The research method used is the historical method by Louis Gottschalk, including heuristic (which is the searching and gathering of historical sources), internal criticism (studying the interrelationship of one source with another source), interpretation (interpreting or understanding historical sources that have been obtained), and historiography (the stage to produce historical works). The results of this research showed that the transformation of madrasas into an integral education system is not a means to delegate management of madrasas to the Ministry of Education and Culture. However, the integration meant that madrasas were acknowledged as part of the national education system, even though their management was delegated to the Ministry of Religion. The education curriculum of madrasas applies both the national education curriculum and a religious curriculum. Thus, what distinguishes madrasas from public schools now is not the weight of general knowledge, but the quality and characteristics of the madrasa itself.