Departemen Agama dan Pengembangan Pendidikan Islam Pada Masa Awal Kemerdekaan

Abstract

After Indonesian independence, the government began to pay greater attention to Islamic education and it gained a very important position in the national education system. In Sumatra, Mahmud Yunus, who at that time served as a religious examiner at the education office, proposed to the head of education that religious education in government schools be formalized and educators receive salaries equal to general subject educators. In addition, religious education in schools began to be regulated systematically, carefully and received full attention. To support this, the Department of Religion was formed which was tasked with supervising and managing religious education in public schools, madrasahs and Islamic boarding schools. This paper will discuss the Department of Religion and the Development of Islamic Education in the Early Period of Independence, including the history of the formation of the Department of Religion, the policies of the Department of Religion in developing Islamic education, the challenges of the Department of Religion in developing Islamic education and the impact of the policies of the Department of Religion in the early period of independence. This paper uses a qualitative descriptive approach, with the main data source from library data. The results of the study show that the Department of Religion played a central role in the development of Islamic education in the early period of Indonesian independence. The roles include: First, the development of educational institutions, namely madrasahs, Islamic boarding schools and State Islamic Colleges (PTAIN). Second, the establishment of religious teacher education institutions. The policy of the Department of Religion in Islamic education faces various obstacles, both political and non-political. In addition, weak coordination and limited resources further hamper the implementation of the policy.