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Sekolah Damai guides schools to combat intolerance, radicalism
The Wahid Foundation has joined forces with the Indonesian Islamic Education Teachers Association (AGPAII) to develop a program called Sekolah Damai (school of peace), which guides headmasters and teachers, as well as students, in promoting tolerance in classrooms.
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Lifelong learner: Islamic education teachers visit the Sam Poo Kong temple in Semarang, Central Java, as part of a Sekolah Damai (school of peace) program initiated by the Wahid Foundation. (Wahid Foundation/-)
M
oderate Islamic think-tank the Wahid Foundation knows that in order to root out radicalism and intolerance in schools, it has to start with the teachers.
The foundation has joined forces with the Indonesian Islamic Education Teachers Association (AGPAII) to develop a program called Sekolah Damai (school of peace), which guides headmasters and teachers, as well as students, in promoting tolerance in classrooms.
The program’s manager Alamsyah Dja’far said the Wahid Foundation had long detected a growing radical viewpoint among students, particularly those who are involved in school extracurricular activities called rohis (Islamic spirituality lectures).
This finding is based on two studies in 2016 and 2018, which both involved more than 1,000 rohis members from hundreds of senior high schools across the nation.
“Based on our survey in 2016, over 60 percent of the participants said they’re willing to wage jihad in the Syrian war zone,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
“A similar survey in 2018 further revealed that around 10 percent of the participants supported the deadly Surabaya bombings.”
The students gained such ideas from social media, as well as from their Islamic-education teachers, who held radical beliefs.
