Character Education For Young Generation
As the Father of National Education, Ki Hajar Dewantara is aware that character education is an important factor in a change. A pile of knowledge will not bring any benefit without good spiritual values.
Prasetyo and Rivaisintha as Indonesian education experts stated, "Character education as a system of instilling character values to students which includes components of knowledge, awareness or will, and actions to carry out these values, both towards God Almighty, self , fellow, environment, and nationality so that we can be human beings. "
It can be understood that character education aims to instill virtuous values to students which include knowledge, awareness, willingness and moral behavior.
In line with the importance of character education, the fact that occurs in the world of education in Indonesia is the implementation of an educational system with a curriculum and numerical weights. Many educators are not aware that besides academic education, moral and character education are equally important.
When the interests of character and morals are aligned with academic ability, that's where then President Joko Widodo moves to launch a program that is actually structured to be applied to the education system today.
Strengthening character is one of the priority programs of President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla. It was stated that the government would revolutionize the nation's character. The Ministry of Education and Culture implements strengthening the character of the nation's successors through the Strengthening Character Education (PPK) movement that was rolled out since 2016.
In accordance with President Joko Widodo's direction, character education at the basic education level gets a larger portion than the education level above it. For primary schools as much as 70 percent, while for junior high schools 60 percent.
"The Movement for Strengthening Character Education is the foundation and the main spirit of education," said former Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud), Muhadjir Effendy.
Lack of character education leads to unfavorable attitudes for Indonesian people. Can we take the example of corruption cases in Indonesia every year. Corruption cases that have been investigated by the Supreme Court (MA) from 2014-2015 were 803 cases. This number increased considerably compared to previous years. The results of a study in the Laboratory of Economics, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Gajah Mada University, revealed that 803 cases had ensnared as many as 967 defendants of corruption.
The data above shows the lack of character education in Indonesia. Education in the country of Indonesia in general prefers formal education. In fact, moral or character education is also needed for the development of a country. Supposedly, between formal academic education and character education go hand in hand to create a balance.
Other field conditions also prove that character education in Indonesia today is ineffective. The rise of bullying cases and other similar cases committed by underage students is a hard slap for the government and academics in Indonesia.
Supposedly, so that character education can run effectively requires a truly and proactive approach and truly demonstrates the core values of good morals and ethics itself.
In addition, schools as a forum for character education must become a community that cares for their students. With the establishment of good relationships between students with each other, between teachers and teachers, between teachers and students, between staff and teachers, and between staff and students. This good relationship will arouse good intentions from both parties. There will be no more cases of harassment between students, there will be no more cases of students committing suicide because of the teacher's lack of sensitivity to the conditions of his students at school. All problems related to student morals will be overcome if character education in Indonesia goes well.
Another way for character education to work effectively is by providing opportunities for students to take moral actions. To develop good character, sufficient opportunities are needed to apply the various positive values taught. For example, how to deliberate to reach consensus, how to minimize arguments, how to be responsible for tasks assigned by groups, and so forth.
Unfortunately, there are still many schools that prioritize numbers rather than the characters of their students. Although all schools heralded that the biggest assessment was taken from the attitude assessment, in fact, what was more valued and looked upon was someone's academic point of view. On the other hand, although attitude assessment is indeed taken as the biggest decisive assessment in student report cards, other facts, the school does not have the ability to build character education that is truly effective.
In essence, character education or moral education aims to improve the quality of education that leads to the achievement of students' noble morals. Through this character building effort, it is expected to form students who are not only smart in academics but also smart in attitude and action.
No doubt, the biggest problems in Indonesia to date still involve moral and ethical issues. The government should immediately solve this problem, so that in the future a quality generation of the nation will be created, and make the country of Indonesia become a developed and respected country. Via Rizqi Dwiyanti
