Suwendi

Lecturer of UIN Jakarta, Secretary of PP ISNU, and Author of the book "History and Policy of Indonesian Islamic Education"

Currently, the quality of Islamic religious education (PAI) in schools is faced with very serious challenges. How not, the results of research released by the Directorate General of Islamic Education of the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia in December 2025 stated that 58.26% of Islamic Religious Education (PAI) teachers at the elementary/elementary level have not been fluent in reading the Qur'an. The results of this research have a serious meaning as well as an alarm for the world of PAI in schools. If left unchecked, this will certainly have an impact on the paralysis of the nation's children in understanding and practicing the teachings of Islam. Imam Al-Ghazali once stated that "knowledge that is not built on the right foundation will give birth to subtle but systematic damage." Because, PAI teachers as holders of pedagogical authority and Islamic transformation to their students face influence in reading the Qur'an itself.

On the other hand, Madrasah Diniyah Takmiliyah (MDT) as an Islamic religious education institution which is often held in the afternoon to guide its students in reading, understanding, and practicing the Qur'an and Islamic religious teachings is now decreasing. EMIS data for 2023, 2024, and 2025 shows a downward trend in the number of MDT students. In 2024, there will be a decrease in the number of students by 43.96% or 2,288,034 students, namely in 2023 as many as 5,204,140 students decreased in 2024 to 2,916,106 students. Likewise, in 2025, there will be another decrease of 6.68% or 195,038 students, namely in 2024 as many as 2,916,106 students, decreasing in 2025 to 2,721,068 students.

The downward trend of MDT students is caused by many factors. However, the most dominant is because of the number of schools (elementary, junior high, high school, vocational school) that now hold their education process for 5 (five) school days in one week. The implementation of this 5 (five) school days makes school students go home in the afternoon so that the time is very limited to study at MDT. The implementation of these 5 (five) school days is a consequence of the issuance of Presidential Decree Number 21 of 2023 concerning Working Days and Working Hours of Government Agencies and State Civil Apparatus Employees which is followed by a number of local government policies and regulations, especially in public schools (SDN, SMPN, SMAN, SMKN) which impose 5 (five) working days.

In the context of overcoming the quality of PAI in schools, on the one hand, and there is a declining trend of MDT students on the other hand, the author proposes that the Government, in this case the Ministry of Religion and the Ministry of Education immediately carry out synergistic collaborative work in the form of the Implementation of Integrated MDT in Schools (MDT-TS). This MDT-TS is held through the implementation of MDT in the school with the students of the school concerned as the students. The MDT-TS operational permit is the authority of the Ministry of Religion by enforcing the MDT curriculum as it has been enforced, namely the Qur'an Hadith, Akidah-Akhlak, Fiqh, SKI, and Arabic, and does not rule out the possibility of certain innovations.

The MDT-TS activity time can be flexibly adjusted, adjusting to the learning time at school. For MDT-TS teachers, it is necessary to involve forums that have been providing real assistance to MDT such as FKDT (Madrasah Diniyah Takmiliyah Communication Forum). FKDT currently exists massively from the central to regional levels, which has been maintained and has a strong commitment to Islam and the ideology of Pancasila. Meanwhile, the cost of operationalizing MDT-TS is also charged to one of the BOS (School Operational Costs) financing units, as well as funding support from the Regional Government and other budgets.

However, this innovation in the implementation of MDT-TS should not kill the MDT that already exists and runs in the community. According to EMIS 2026 data, the number of MDT institutions is 104,622 institutions. This number is very massive and must be maintained. The MDT-TS policy must not then kill the MDT organized by the community. For this reason, there needs to be a norm that MDT-TS permits are granted, for example, if within a radius of 1 Km from the school concerned there is no MDT operating. While schools within 1 Km of MDT are located in the same area, the school concerned collaborates with the MDT.

This MDT-TS innovation has a real impact in many ways. Substantively, the problem of PAI quality in schools can relatively be overcome systematically and collaboratively by involving various elements, namely schools, MDT, FKDT, Ministry of Religion, Ministry of Education and Regional Government. Technically, students in schools have easy access to MDT services. In fact, the curriculum that has been running at MDT will greatly improve the implementation of PAI in schools. Hope you benefit.