Rika Husyana A1B213256

Is Character Education Essential in Our Education System?

Moral deficiency has become a serious issue all over the world and it is also a big problem in Indonesia. Indonesia Government released the newest Law No.20 Year 2003 on Indonesia National Education System regarding Indonesia characters and education institutions responsibility to incorporate character education. Character education according to the Education Ministry of Indonesia is a conscious effort to make students understand, care about, and internalize the values and norms of the social life, in order to create a better personality. There are arguments whether our educational system also needs to focus on the development of students’ morality as much as it focuses on students’ academic achievements. Given the problem of moral deficiency has become a world concern, character building is critical to be instilled in the curriculum for several reasons.

The first reason that character building is needed to be included in National Education system is because Indonesia has to breed not only intelligent but also morally responsible students. In order to take our country forward, one of the things we have to focus on is the next generation, the youth. Therefore, the system of our education is very important. Essentially, education is a tool to bring forth competent human resources with good moral. Character education is able to develop students’ citizenship. Morally responsible citizens are more likely to bring our country forward than the selfish citizens who only want the gaining for themselves. Without character education, students will not see the importance of good characters which has been disregarded by our education system.

The second reason that moral education is highly critical is many people have higher education, but lack in moral. For example, those corruptors in our country are the majority of people who have postgraduate degree or even doctorate degree. Based on Indonesia Corruption Eradication Commission or KPK (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi) statistic, more than six hundred people who have been detained for corruption are postgraduates, two hundred more are graduates, and forty of them are doctorates. They are intelligent people, but those titles do not prevent them from violating the less fortunate’s rights and robbing our country money. This is a prove that intelligence is not equal with goodness. It seems many people have lost their value of honesty. Therefore, character education is not optional, but it is highly needed to restore that value.

The third reason that character education is required because good attitude is more valuable than a smart brain. Up until curriculum 2013, our education system mainly focuses on students’ academic achievements instead of the learning process itself. The main concern is only in the form of a score and the learning process is regarded as unimportant. This has been encouraging students to value the score of their academic achievement above anything. We certainly have to change this fatal misconception. The students’ way of thinking that has them only care about their score is needed to be changed. In order to be a better people whether for the society or for themselves, the students have to learn the values and the norms of the social life and instill them in their lives. Therefore, moral education is needed to be re-implemented in our education system. The character education implementation is able to facilitate students to develop good characters and basic human values.

The last reason to implement character education is the youth have to be taught good characters and basic human values as early as possible. We cannot just wait for the next generation to be mature enough to start learning those values. Good character is not only something to be learned about, but it needs many efforts to be internalized in the youth. Moral values that have been taught in the early age will be more likely to leave an imprint in the youth until they become an adult. In this era when full-day school is a common thing, children spend more time in their schools rather than in their home. This is a chance that we can take advantage of to teach the children those good values through the national education system. With character education as a part of the national curriculum, nation’s characters and education institutions have no choice, but to incorporate is as part of their learning and teaching program. Students will be exposed more on the chance to learn and exercise the values, which are honesty, responsibility, respect, caring, and citizenship.

Many may believe character education is not needed in our education system. The youth can learn our culture value and norm outside school. However, the effort of instilling good characters and basic human value is not only the family’s responsibility. It is our responsibility together, including the government and the social environment. The youth does not only have to learn those values, but also practice them in real life. They need the role models as much as they the teacher to teach them those values. Character education as part o the national education system will able to facilitate not only the teacher, but also the parents to teach the children the good values.

The others also believe that character education is not as important as the education itself. However, the problem of moral deficiency and destructive behavior of the nowadays generation have proved otherwise. The phenomenon of social demoralization and social unrest happen in almost all sectors of life in Indonesia. The importance of character education is cannot be stressed enough. Sojourner asserted that it is no doubt true that even for the American educational system was originally focused just as much or more on the development of students’ morality, virtue and citizenship as it was on improving student acumen in reading, writing and arithmetic. Character education is even as old as the education itself. Essentially, education cannot be separated from moral education.

In conclusion, character education is greatly substantial in our education system. It may be the answer to nowadays issue of moral deficiency in our society. Even though it has its own challenges to be implemented, character education is inevitable. The responsibility of character education is not only on the family, but also on the government and the societal environment. Therefore, the national education system, which has a big role in moving forward our county, needs character education as part of our effort to bring forth human resources who are not only intelligently competent, but also morally responsible.

References:

 

Djiwandono, P. (2016, July). Character Education in Content Courses: Self-Scoring as a Means for Developing Honesty in Students. TEFLIN Journal, 27, 153-164.

Ginanto, D. E., Mulyadin, T., & Putra, K. A. (n.d.). Character Education at Schools in Indonesia. Retrieved from Educational Website: https://dioneg.com/education/character-education-at-schools-in-indonesia/

Nadhirin, A. L. (2011, June Monday). Pendidikan Nasional yang Bermoral. Retrieved from Kumpulan Artikel: http://nadhirin.blogspot.co.id/2011/06/pendidikan-nasional-yang-bermoral.html