Govt to focus on character development in schools

The government unveiled a plan to focus on character building

in the nation’s schools for the next nine years, proposing that schoolchildren be inculcated with 30 positive traits.

Coordinating Public Welfare Minister’s Office met with several groups on Thursday to receive comments on which values schoolchildren should be taught.

The office’s deputy for education and religion, Agus Sartono, said that character development would be the ministry’s key program from 2011 to 2014, and would likely be extended to 2019.

Agus said the program would be expanded into a national framework that included every ministry, with the National Education Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry taking the lead.

“We already have rich values from Indonesia’s indigenous characters. For example, we can find 36 traits [to develop people] who are creative, smart and polite based on Pancasila, the country’s foundation. We want to promote those characters,” Agus said.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry suggested development of seven traits: pride in being Indonesian; unity and gotong royong (community joint effort); an appreciation of pluralism, a love of peace; perseverance and achievement-seeking, and democracy and positive thinking

The ministry proposed developing character through programs such as the Museum Visit Year and cultural festivals.

“By visiting museums, students can learn about the good character traits of their ancestors,” Culture and Tourism Ministry secretary- general Wardiyatmo said.

Islamic educational and social organization Muhammadiyah suggested 15 basic values for character education, including self-control, honesty, and responsibility, describing the traits as “akhlak mulia” or “noble conduct”.

Qomari Anwar from Muhammadiyah said that teachers should be properly trained to be student role models. Responsibility for character development lay not just on the shoulders of one or two teachers, but rather on a school’s entire staff — including janitors and cafeteria workers, he said.

Agus said that character development could be integrated with academic subjects, such as mathematics. He gave an example of a hypothetical math question about three students who needed divide a certain amount of money so a fourth student could join a field trip. “The children would not only learn about division, but also learn that they should help a friend in need,” he said.

Indonesian national scouting organization Pramuka vice chairman Amoroso Katamsi said: “We need to quickly carry out the program across the country. Perhaps we can use the same strategy as Penataran P4 [the intensive Pancasila indoctrination course] used in former president Soeharto’s era, but with different methods. The government should prioritize which character traits they want to focus on, such as discipline or politeness.”

Parenting education should take center stage since families were a child’s first exposure to character development, Amoroso said.

Pre-marriage counseling held by religious institutions was needed, Amoroso said, adding it should emphasizing not only on being a harmonious couple, but also good parents for children.