Religious Education in the World Largest Muslim Country’s Public Schools: Past and Current Policies, Challenges, and Policy Recommendations
Religious Education in the World Largest Muslim Country’s Public Schools: Past and Current Policies, Challenges, and Policy Recommendations

Summary/Abstract: Even though Indonesia is the world largest Muslim country, it does not declare itself as a religious one. Indonesia is known as a country tolerating most religions and placing religion as a vital part of the program in public schools to ensure that its citizens have their rights to pursue religious education. However, religious tolerance is in danger as several religious-based conflicts and sentiments have emerged in some areas. While many people are doubtful if the causes of the conflicts are related to religion, it seems that the targets are related to religious symbols, such as mosques, churches, or holy books. More importantly, the contribution and existence of religious education policy in public schools have been critiqued and challenged. What went wrong with the teaching of religious education in public schools? This paper will look at the past and current policies of religious education in public schools. It will discuss the challenges to implement the policy in public schools and will offer specific policy recommendations to meet these challenges.

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