Meaning of Diversification of Qur’anic School in Contemporary Globalized Society This study clarifies that Islamic education in Banjarnegara Regency is much

diversified in many aspects which are influenced by socio economic and other social and political factors. The diversification occurs not only in village level both in semi-urban rural (relatively close to the town) and remote rural setting (relatively far from the town), but also in Qur’anic School level, and it shows that community has freedom in managing the

166

Qur’anic schools based on their locality, human resource, and needs. The system is widespread throughout the selected three districts covered by this study.

The study also has clarified that each Qur’anic School at the target area requires a decentralized, creative decision-making approach and the institutional framework to make it work. Diversification in this context is also about different delivery approaches at the Qur’anic Schools that would require creating a flexible timetable, using multiple shifts to reach the widest possible prospective students, recruiting local voluntary teachers, introducing multi grade classes to make optimum use of limited number of teachers, and encouraging the private sector, non-governmental organizations, religious organizations like pesantrens, civil society organizations, and individuals to participate in the provision of education at the Qur’anic Schools.

For some perspectives, more diversification is something not good for Qur’anic Schools. Why? Education within a country should be ideally uniformed in quality. Therefore, they have the same quality and standard in curriculum, teachers, infrastructure, and so on.

But in the case of Qur’anic School, that diversification causes different services that the Qur’anic school gets from the government. The first point is in term of its status. Due to no strict instruction from the Regency Religious Affair office to each Qur’anic school existed within the regency to report their status it causes the teachers consider that registering the Qur’anic school to the government is not compulsory or it is not necessary for them to register it. Although some of them have been established more than a decade, have many students, have their own building, etc., but the status of their Qur’anic school is unregistered.

Basically, when all representative teachers at each Qur’anic school in each village register it then of course the government will input it as the data. By having such good management, they directly can recognize the exact number of all those schools in each village, in district as well as at the regency level. While most Qur’anic schools in Banjarnegara regency have not been registered, it causes the government get difficulty in recognizing the exact number of Qur’anic school in each village, in each district and in the regency level. There are Qur’anic schools which have already registered their status to the regency religious level office and this status makes them get more advantages compared with the unregistered ones.

167

It seems unfair when the registered Qur’anic schools get donation in terms of financial support, textbooks, and others. Yet for both registered and unregistered Qur'anic schools, the same teachers do the same activities but they are treated unequally by the government.

When the government has fund to be donated to existed Qur’anic schools within the regency but before giving the budget, all the Qur’anic schools have to fulfill the determined requirements.

Due to those diversifications happened in each Qur’anic school, in each village, or in each district cause the teachers and students get different treatment and services from the government. Besides that, the government cannot take care all of them while in Banjarnegara regency there are at least 266 Qur’anic schools. Of course, these cases can trigger the feeling of jealousy among those schools. It is better for the government to make the uniformity for all Qur’anic schools whether they have been registered and unregistered yet. For this matter, the government should invoke unregistered Qur’anic schools to enroll their status of Qur’anic school by giving the correct data regarding its location, when it is established, the name of the headmaster and so forth. When the Qur’anic schools get the same treatment in any kinds of service from the government, the teachers also will be more motivated to serve the children in religious education.

The second matter is regarding teachers training. It often happened that the more active and senior/older teachers will be sent to join teachers training conducted at pesantren or at designated teachers training center. It should be better that all teachers regardless from registered or unregistered Qur’anic schools and semi urban or remote rural areas are sent to attend such training in order that they get more Islamic knowledge. One interesting point in this study that the teachers whose Qur’anic school located close to pesantren as a teacher training center get more chances to participate in teachers training, workshop or seminar conducted by pesantren or regency religious affair. By having such situation, teachers in each Qur’anic school have different level of capability in teaching the students. Dis-uniformity in treating the teachers can create different perspectives between teachers towards the local government. Therefore, the government should disseminate the

168

information of teachers training to all teachers to join. Although some of them cannot attend due to some other important things to do.

Other varieties of Qur’anic school also should be tackled in order to have uniformity with other Qur’anic schools. This study finds that diversification of Qur’anic schools can create jealousy, different perspectives in each teacher towards the government who controls and manages the Qur’anic schools in the regency, and felt being treated differently. It should be better that the regency religious affair office make uniformity in giving the service to all Qur’anic schools to avoid the matters mentioned above. By having uniformity in all aspects in Qur’anic schools within the regency indicates that the government gives full pay attention and can take care of them seriously.

7.6. Flexibility of Qur’anic Schools Education and Management System: its