Apesantren is a traditional Islamicboarding school inIndonesia.Pesantren are usually in private houses, apondok or a mosque. The teachings include classical Islamic texts andsantri thought, taught by instructors calledkyais.[1] According to one popular tradition, thepesantren education system originated from traditionalJavanesepondokan, dormitories,ashrams forHindus orviharas forBuddhists to learn religious philosophies,martial arts, andmeditation. Institutions much like them are found across the Islamic world and are calledpondok inMalaysia,Southern Thailand andmadrasas in India and Pakistan and much of the Arabic-speaking world. Thepesantren aims to deepen knowledge of theQuran, particularly through the study of Arabic, traditions ofexegesis, theSayings of the Prophet, law and logic. The termpesantren derives from the root wordsantri ("student") --pe-santri-an or the place of thesantri.[2]: 48
As social institutions,pesantren have played a major role in Indonesia over the centuries. They emphasise core values of sincerity, simplicity, individual autonomy, solidarity and self-control. Young men and women are separated from their families, which contributes to a sense of individual commitment to the faith and close bonding to a teacher.[3][1]
Mostpesantren provide housing at little to no cost for the students (santri). Students inpesantren have almost 20 hours of activities, beginning withearly morning prayer at around 4 am, and ending at around midnight with a study group in the dormitory. There are two types of educational systems for pupils at apesantren: during the day, students attend formal secular schooling, and in the late afternoon and evening, they shift to religious rituals and studies.
Pesantren are provided to Indonesian citizens at low cost; although today some modernpesantren charge higher fees, they are still significantly cheaper than other educational institutions. Traditionally, students paid for food, lodging, and education through labour in the headmaster's fields.
Allpesantren are led by a group of teachers and religious leaders known askyai. Thekyai is respected as a teacher and devout man.Kyai also play important roles in the community as a religious leader, and in recent years as a political figure. There are families that have long histories of providingkyai to their communities, with some contemporarykyai being grandsons and great-grandsons of the founders of renownedpesantren.[1][2]: 48
Starting in the second half of the twentieth century, somepesantren started adding secular subjects to their curriculum as a way of negotiating modernity. The addition of state recognized curricula has affected traditionalpesantren in a number of ways. It has led to greater control by the national government. It has also restricted the number of hours available for the traditional subjects making for difficult decisions. Manypesantren leaders have decided that the training of religious leaders is not their sole purpose and are now satisfied to graduate young men and women who have the morality ofKyai.[4] The reduction of hours available to now master two curricula has led to practical changes. While it is still possible for the children of the poor to work in theKyai's economic ventures (more than just rice fields these days), most parents will pay both room and board and small tuition. The time that used to be spent working, is now spent in secular education.[1]
Thepesantren curriculum has four possible components:
Pesantren differ to the degree that they engage each of these components; however, all agree that student character development is the defining characteristic of anypesantren.[2]: 47–70
Through curricular redesign,pesantren people engage in a process of (re)imagining modernity. Modernity must be first imagined as potentially dangerous in terms of the morals that often accompany it. It must then be imagined as redeemable, that it can be detached from one set of "problematic" morals and reattached to Islamic morality.[5]
One prominentpesantren figure in Indonesia isAbdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), thefourthPresident of Indonesia. He was well-educated atpesantren in his youth and was himself the grandson of theKyai that founded the Indonesian religious political organization,Nahdlatul Ulama. Gus Dur headed the organization from 1984 until 1999, and after his term as president, returned to teaching in hispesantren in Ciganjur,Jagakarsa.[6]
