T

he government needs to push all educational institutions to actively promote values of tolerance and diversity because education plays an important role in encouraging the basic foundation of pluralism, experts say.

According to Rafendi Djamin, the Indonesian representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), one approach would be to include elements promoting diversity in the national curriculum, which the government has so far failed to do.

'€œEducation, particularly in schools, plays a significant role in countering intolerance and radicalism because it is the place where students can learn tolerant attitudes,'€ he said on Monday.

He said, however, that the country'€™s education system, particularly the formal system, still promoted intolerance and could spread fundamentalism.

Federation for Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI) secretary-general Retno Listyarti acknowledged that pluralistic values at schools were fading, shown by the obligation to read the holy book every morning in state schools.

She added that religious radicalism and extremism had entered the education sector through extracurricular activities, such as Islamic spirituality organizations.

'€œHowever, many teachers and stakeholders at schools often turn a blind eye, acting like everything'€™s fine with their students,'€ Retno said.

Ismail Hasani, research director at pluralism watchdog the Setara Institute, said that the government should be more serious in educating teachers, such as training them in how to promote tolerance in class.

'€œI think the Education and Culture Ministry has yet to have any breakthrough to promote tolerance in education so far,'€ Ismail said. '€œOn the contrary, according to our institution'€™s recent survey, students are getting more radical.'€

A survey released by the Setara Institute in February revealed that 43.8 percent of 242 students from a number of state high schools in Jakarta and Bandung who knew about the minority Shia and Ahmadiyah branches of Islam agreed that the government should restrict the activities of both groups.

According to Ismail, the percentage was scary because it showed that radicalism prevailed even in the mind-sets of young generations.

He added that young generations should receive pluralistic education starting from the lowest education levels, including kindergarten and Koran education groups.

The Education and Culture Ministry'€™s director general for secondary education, Hamid Muhammad, said that pluralism had been included substantially in several school subjects, such as civic education, which covers respect and diversity.

'€œThe substance for teaching pluralism is enough as long as teachers teach it well. So we don'€™t need a specific curriculum on it,'€ Hamid said, claiming that teaching was the responsibility of regional education agencies.

He said that if people found indications of radical teachings, they should report it to their local administration because the central government was responsible only for the regulation. (foy)