Implementation of Strategic Management of Islamic Boarding School-Based Character Education at Mambaus Sholihin High School in Blitar Indonesia

Suminto¹, Ahmad Tanzeh², Asrop Safi’i³

^1,2,3  Sayyid Ali Rahmatullah State Islamic University Tulungagung Indonesia

ABSTRACT: This research is motivated by character education which has a very important role in producing the nation’s generation because the nature of character education is aimed at creating comprehensively intelligent, competitive and dignified human resources. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the implementation of pesantren-based character education at Mambaus Sholihin High School in Blitar.

This research uses a qualitative approach. The data collection techniques used include in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentation studies. The data analysis techniques used are data condensation, data presentation (display), and conclusion drawing (verification). Data validity checking is based on the criteria of credibility, transfer-ability, dependability and confirmation.

The results of this research are The implementation of Islamic boarding school-based character education is carried out by: a) integrating the content of the Islamic boarding school curriculum into the school curriculum, especially in the aspect of instilling character education values; b) developing students’ talents and interests through extracurricular activities, both religious, sports, skills, and organizational; c) forming and developing the main character of students through habituation of religious and manners activities and enforcing school/madrasah rules with a point system; d) through habituation of riyadhoh, which is an practice that aims to train the spiritual or inner dimensions of students, including through practice: prayer/wirid, dhikr, qiyamul lail, Monday to Thursday fasting, ratibul haddad, sholawat al-Barzanji, and maqbarah pilgrimage.

KEYWORDS: Implementation of Strategic Management, Islamic Boarding School-Based Character Education

RESEARCH CONTEXT

Education today is faced with a variety of complex problems, especially those related to the character attitudes of students. This is due to the rapid global transformation and is worldwide due to the development of science and technology. Developments in several fields have resulted in an information revolution without any geographical, political, educational, or sociocultural boundaries. This phenomenon, if not accompanied by the cultivation of character education from an early age, will certainly impact a nation’s moral decline.

Educational institutions, schools and madrasas have a big role and responsibility for the skills of the nation’s generation. Syaodih stated that humans are required to try to know a lot (knowing much), do a lot (doing much), achieve excellence (being excellence), establish relationships and cooperation with others (being sociable), and try to manage moral values (being moral). These excellent, moral and hardworking human beings are what the global community demands. Everyone can compete with fellow citizens in a region and country and citizens of other countries. (Nana Syaodih Sukmadinata, 2010),

According to Thomas Lickona, character is a person’s nature to respond to moral situations manifested in real actions through honesty, responsibility, respect for others, good behavior and other noble characteristics. This definition is similar to what Aristotle expressed, that character is closely related to continuously carried out habits. Regarding character education, Lickona emphasizes three things that are formulated neatly: knowing, loving, and acting good. According to him, the success of character education begins with understanding good character, loving it, and implementing good character in everyday life. (Thomas Lickona, 1992)

Character education essentially aims to form a nation that is resilient, competitive, noble, moral, tolerant, cooperative, patriotic, dynamic, and oriented towards science and technology, all of which are inspired by faith and piety to God Almighty based on the Pancasila. (Heri Gunawan, 2012), Character education also aims to develop cultural values and national character in students so that each student can have values and character as his/her character and apply these values in life as a member of society and a religious, nationalist, productive, and creative citizen. (Rukiyati & L. Andriani Purwastuti, 2016)

Character education is very important to be instilled in students, especially at the senior high school level, because it aims to improve solid morals and give direction to each young generation in making smart decisions and behavior. Character education is based on mind, heart, body, taste and spirit values. Character education is also a teaching that is carried out to instill habits (habituation) about good so that students understand, can feel, and want to do good. (Marzuki, 2012). Character education is education which means instilling habits in students about what is good so that students become aware (cognitive) of what is right and wrong, able to feel (affective) good values, and usually do it (psychomotor). (Agus Zainul Fitri, 2012) In implementing good character education at High School (SMA) Mambaus Sholihin Blitar, there is no doubt because the educational institution is a boarding school-based. A boarding school is an educational institution with the main purpose of elevating morals, training and enhancing spiritual and human values. (Zamakhsyari Dhofier, 1981)

Even from the results of several studies, it is explained that the motives and goals of parents in sending their children to boarding schools are 1) so that children have good morals; 2) there is a feeling of the inability of parents to educate children at home; 3) there is school education; 4) equipped with religious knowledge that can be practiced by themselves and others; and 5) children grow up to be smart children (Dedi Supriatna, 2020). Comparable research also found results about the reasons parents send their children to boarding schools: 1) religion and ideology; 2) environmental problems and negative developments in information technology; 3) discipline; and 4) there is supervision from the management in every activity. (Marzuki and Ahmad Masrukin, 2019). Therefore, boarding school-based are more intensive in instilling character education. Meanwhile, the formation of individual personal character requires support from the surrounding environment, including teachers as role models for students. (Stovika Eva Damayanti, 2014)

So from the above explanation, the researcher took the location of a formal educational institution under the auspices of an Islamic boarding school as a research location, namely Mambaus Sholihin Senior High School (SMA) Blitar Regency. Mambaus Sholihin Blitar Regency is an educational institution under the auspices of the Mambaus Sholihin Islamic Boarding School Foundation. The determination of this institution seeks to prioritize quality and quantity that produces superior graduates by having spiritual depth, breadth of knowledge and nobility of character to realize intellectual, professional scholars and professional intellectuals who are scholars. The implementation of education with an integrated and guided model for 24 hours so that students are required to be in the boarding school by participating in boarding school activities under the guidance and supervision of the Masayuki and professional educators.

The uniqueness of Mambaus Sholihin High School is that, unlike most high schools around Blitar Regency, this school comprises 60 percent of religious content and 40 percent of available content. This means that the religious portion is larger and included in the school curriculum structure. Including Alfiah Ibn Malik’s material as local content as a form of the boarding school’s efforts to realize its vision, in addition to extracurricular activities for students in which there is entrepreneurial content (entrepreneur).

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW

Implementation of strategic plans is the action stage of strategic management as a form of realization of programs determined at the strategy formulation stage; furthermore, according to J. David Hunger, strategic implementation is a management action in realizing strategies and policies through action steps in the form of programs, budget details, and procedures (SOPs). (David Hunger and Thomas L Wheelen, 2003). In more detail, David explained that implementing strategic plans focuses on three main domains, namely programs that are translated with activities stated in detail, which are to complete a one-time plan.

Meanwhile, character is often associated with personality, so character-building is also associated with personality-building. Good character consists of knowing good things, wanting good things, and doing good things, whether it involves habits of mind, habits of heart, and habits of action. These three things are needed to direct a moral life so that they will form moral maturity.

The terms character and personality are considered as a characteristic or feature possessed by a person that comes from formations received from the environment. (Doni Koesmana, 2017), While character elements consist of instincts, urges, reflexes, habits, tendencies, organs of feeling, emotions, sentiments, interests, virtues and sins, and will. (Netty Hartati, et al.2004) Therefore, character education is defined as an effort to cultivate intelligence in thinking, appreciation in the form of attitudes, and practice in the form of behavior by noble values that become his identity, manifested in interactions with God, self, society and the environment. (Zubaedi, 2011)

Character development is an effort to foster and develop good or positive values in children following applicable moral ethics. Children not only know what should be done but also understand why it is done so that children will behave as expected. (Deni Damayanti, 2014). Other elements that affect a person’s character, according to Fatchul Mu’in, include attitudes, emotions, beliefs, habits and will, and self-concept. (Fatchul Mu’in, 2011).

Implementation of the application of character education is the actualization of the concept of character education programs in learning or activities at school so that students experience changes in the affective aspects as well as cognitive and psychomotor. The implementation of character education in educational institutions, commonly known as character education, is aimed at building graduates with strong religious values and positive morals.

Therefore, boarding school-based character education can be successful and effective if there is collaboration and synergy with the environment that has the potential to develop individual student character building. So educational institutions, both schools and madrasas, which are under the auspices of boarding school, if they want to succeed in instilling boarding school-based character education, of course, they must synergize or integrate boarding school cultural values in the school or madrasa curriculum.

Character education, according to Lickona, as cited by Samani and Hariyanto, is an effort that is intentionally designed to improve the character of students. Character is the values of human behavior related to God Almighty, self, fellow human beings, the environment, and nationality, manifested in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and actions based on religious norms, laws, manners, culture, and customs. (Muchlas Samani and Hariyanto, 2011). Majid and Andayani explained several definitions of character. According to experts, that character, as defined by Ryan and Bohlin, contains three main elements: knowing the good, loving the good, and doing the good. According to him, goodness is often summarized in a series of good traits in character education. (Abdul Majid, and Dian Andayani, 2012). Character education is based on basic human character, which comes from universal moral values (absolute), which comes from religion which is also referred to as the golden rule. (I. Kurniasih, and B. Sani, 2017). In addition, character education must also consider culture; even education itself is organized based on culture. (S. Acetylene, 2018). So it can be concluded that character is the values of human behavior related to God Almighty, self, fellow human beings, the environment, and nationality that are manifested in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and actions based on religious norms, laws, manners, culture and prevailing customs.

Islamic boarding school-based are schools where the majority of students live in Islamic boarding schools, integrating the school education system, which focuses on developing scientific abilities (science) and the Islamic boarding school education system, which focuses on developing religious attitudes and practices. (Nurochim, 2016). So a boarding school-based is a formal educational institution in which a combination of the boarding school education system and the formal education system is carried out. Namely, the boarding school curriculum is included in the school curriculum.

This boarding school-based education model can proportionally give a person the ability in general and religious knowledge. In boarding school-based, two education systems are integrated, namely between the boarding school education system and the school education system, into one unified whole. Islamic boarding school-baseds are a superior educational model that integrates the implementation of the school system which focuses on aspects of developing scientific abilities and skills with the implementation of the Islamic boarding school education system, which focuses on developing religious attitudes and practices, increasing morality, morals al-karma, and independence in life.

The birth of a boarding school-based system resulted from a long discussion between policymakers and related parties, so this idea does not deviate from government policy regulations. Meanwhile, the juridical basis of this boarding school-based system refers to Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 55 of 2007 concerning Religious Education and Religious Education Article 9 paragraph 2, which reads: Religious Education is organized in formal, non-formal and informal education pathways. (Regulation of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia Number 55 of 2007 concerning Religious Education and Religious Education, Article 9, paragraph 2).

DISCUSSION

The implementation of the Islamic Boarding School-based character education strategy at High School (SMA) Mambaus Sholihin Blitar is carried out as follows:

1. Integrating the contents of the boarding school curriculum into the school curriculum, especially in the aspect of instilling character education values.
2. Development of students’ talents and interests through extracurricular activities, both religious, sports, skills and organizational;
3. The formation and development of the main character of students, through the habituation of religious activities and manners and the implementation of school/madrasah rules with a point system.
4. Through the habituation of riyadhoh, namely amaliah which aims to train the spiritual or inner dimension of students or santri, including through the practice of: prayer/wirid, dhikr, qiyamul lail, fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, ratib al haddad, sholawat al-Barzanji, and the pilgrimage of maqbarah Masyayikh.

In implementing Islamic boarding school-based character education at High School (SMA) Mambaus Sholihin Blitar by integrating the contents of the Islamic boarding school curriculum into the school curriculum, especially in the aspect of instilling educational values, this is following the concept proposed by Kurniasih, that character education is based on basic human character, which originates from universal (absolute) moral values, originating from religion which is also referred to as the golden rule. (I. Kurniasih, and B. Sani, 2017). In addition, character education must also consider culture; even education itself is carried out on a cultural basis. (S. Acetylene, 2018). So it can be concluded that character is the values of human behavior related to God Almighty, oneself, fellow human beings, the environment, and nationality, which are embodied in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and actions based on religious norms, laws, etiquette, culture, and customs that apply. From an Islamic perspective, character education has existed since Islam was sent down to the world along with the sending of the Prophet Muhammad. to improve or perfect human morals (character).

Islamic teachings themselves contain a systematic teaching that does not only emphasize the aspects of faith, worship and Ramallah but also morals. The comprehensive practice of Islamic teachings (kaffah) is a model of the character of a Muslim; even this character has been exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad. Who has side, tabligh, amanah, and katonah characteristics? Islam is a perfect religion, so every teaching in Islam has a rationale and character education originating from Islam, which has been widely explained in the Qur’an and exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad.

Whereas in implementing Islamic boarding school-based character education at High School (SMA) Mambaus Sholihin Blitar by developing students’ interests through extracurricular activities, both religious, sports, skills, and organizational, this is implicitly following the theory proposed by Thomas Lickona, character education includes three stages that must be passed, namely the first “Moral knowing, the second is moral feeling, and the third is moral action”. (Thomas Lickona, 2001)

In addition, character education that is instilled through the development of student’s talents and interests through extracurricular activities, both religious, sports, skills and organizational, is also in line with the theory of the pillars of character education, according to Suparlan, as quoted by Jamal Ma’mur there are nine (9) interrelated pillars, namely: 1) responsibility, 2) respect, 3) fairness. 4) courage, 5) honesty, 6) citizenship, 7) self-discipline, 8) caring, and 9) perseverance. (Jamal Makmur Asmuni, 2012). Of these nine pillars, when examined carefully, there are extracurricular activities, whether religious, sports, skills, or organizational.

In implementing Islamic boarding school-based character education at High School (SMA) Mambaus Sholihin Blitar with the formation and development of the main character of students, through the habituation of religious and etiquette activities and the enforcement of school/madrasah rules with a point system, this is following the concept of character education proposed by Thomas Lickona, that in character education is a deliberate effort to help someone so that he can understand, pay attention to, and carry out core ethical values. Furthermore, more broadly, he stated that character education is a deliberate (conscious) effort to create goodness, namely objectively good human qualities, not only for individuals but also for society as a whole. (Thomas Lickona, 2015). So character education is a form of intentional effort carried out from all dimensions of social life so that it can help optimally form good character.

The model of implementing Islamic boarding school-based character education at Mambaus Sholihin Blitar High School is through the habituation of riyadhoh, namely amaliah, which aims to train the spiritual or inner dimension of students or santri, including through the practice of prayer/wirid, dhikr, qiyamul lail, fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, ratibul Haddad, sholawat Al-Barzanji, and ziarah maqbaroh Masyayikh; this is under the concept of character development as an effort to grow and develop good or positive values in children according to the applicable moral ethics. Children not only know what should be done but also understand why it is done so that children will behave as expected. (Deni Damayanti, 2014). Other elements that influence a person’s character, according to Fatchul Mu’in, include attitudes, emotions, beliefs, habits, and will, as well as self-concept. (Fatchul Mu’in, 2011).

The main characteristics or characteristics of boarding school education can be seen from aspects of worship, muamalah, education, leadership, and institutions. Aspects of worship include congregational prayers, midnight prayers, barzanji, istighosah, manaqib, tahlil, etc. Aspects of muamalah include ukhuwah, Muslim dress, discipline, guaranteed security, social control, eating hours, sleeping, pickets, and sanctions. Therefore, all aspects of education, for example, the orientation of the world’s happiness and the hereafter, religious knowledge, akhlakul karimah, based on the book being taught/yellow book, skills education, respecting elders.

CONCLUSION

The following conclusions can be obtained based on the results of the data presentation and discussion in this study.

The implementation of Islamic boarding school-based character education at High School (SMA)f Mambaus Sholihin Blitar is carried out by 1) integrating the contents of the boarding school curriculum into the school curriculum, especially in the aspect of instilling character education values; 2) developing students’ talents and interests through extracurricular activities, both religious, sports, skills and organizational; 3) The formation and development of the main character of students, through the habituation of religious activities and etiquette and the implementation of school/madrasah rules with a point system; 4) through the habituation of riyadhoh, namely amaliah which aims to train the spiritual or inner dimension of students or santri, including through the practice of: prayer/wirid, dhikr, qiyamul lail, fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, ratibul hadad, sholawat al-Barzanji, and pilgrimages to maqbaroh masyayikh.

RECOMMENDATION

1. For Principals of Schools/Madrasas under the auspices of Islamic boarding schools, this research can become information and material for consideration in preparing other programs or policies, especially regarding the implementation of Islamic boarding school-based character education.
2. For educational policyholders from the Ministry of Religion, the Ministry of Education and Culture, educational foundations, and Islamic boarding schools, this research can be used as information and study material in making policies related to the implementation of strategic management of boarding school-based character education.
3. For educational institutions, High School (SMA) Mambaus Sholihin Blitar, the results of this study are expected to contribute in terms of identification, analysis, and development in the implementation of strategic management of participant character education based on Islamic boarding schools.
4. Future researchers should develop research on the implementation of strategic management of boarding school-based character education on different problems. Not only implementation but developed in other settings so that there are differences in discourse as well as findings in the field that can develop new theories.

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