Research Article: 2019 Vol: 22 Issue: 5
Kamarul Shukri Mat The, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
Zulafiat, Universiti Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar
Moral education is an important thing in building human character. However, school in formal systems often focuses on intellectual and cognitive advancement. This makes parents anxious about the character and morals of their children. Among the solutions in balanced education between knowledge and morals are to opt for homeschooling. The purpose of this study is to examine the values and approaches, used in training and educating moral students of Homeschooling Ka Seto, in Indonesia. A case study has been employed for this qualitative research. The sample was chosen by using the purposive sampling technique. A principal, two tutors or teachers, and four high school students of Homeschooling Ka Seto were chosen as respondents. Semi structured interview and document analysis were utilized to obtain data. Data analysis was completed through data reduction, display data, and conclusion-verification. The findings show that there are seven values that act as pillars of moral education at Homeschooling Ka Seto. These values are discipline, responsibility, tolerance, co-operation, self-confidence, socialization and spirituality. They are applied in everyday courses and day-to-day activities. Moral construction does not only involve the school management and teachers, but it also places parents as a major player in their children's education.
Homeschooling, Ka Seto, Ethics, Moral.
Morality is such an important element in human life. It distinguishes humanity from bestial traits. According to Ibn Miskawaih, morality is a character embedded in a soul that pushes oneself to do deeds without the need for thought and consideration (Abudin, 2000). Iman al-Ghazali explains that morality is a term for the inner form of a person's psyche that motivates him to act or respond, and not simply as a mere thought and consideration (Usman, 1981). Hence, morality is a behaviour that arises as a result of a combination of conscience, feelings, thoughts, and habits that form an act in everyday life. That action is a moral value that allows humans to distinguish between good and bad things, as well as between things that are beneficial and harmful.
Moral education is an important matter, especially during the children and adolescents stages. It acts as a guidance and training to students in developing their potential and transforming themselves into noble character with good personality. Lickona (2004) argued that moral education is a possession of a “good thing or characteristic”. Lickona (1991) also believed that there are three components in forming good character i.e. knowing good things, wanting good things, and doing good things until they become a habit in thinking, heart and action. Hence, moral education without a doubt must be deliberate, systematic effort of encouraging, assisting and guiding persons in developing all their potentials and improving self-quality. Thus, in this case, parents and educators have an important role to teach and train their children with moral and moral values.
However, challenge arises as school system of today emphasize more on the development of only intellectual ability and hence putting less attention to the development of the morals and character of the students. When in fact, the two primary goals of education should be to help people to become wise and kind (Lickona 1993). Education is considered inadequate when it only makes the child smart. Rather, it must build children of good characters until they are noble and be of benefits to others. It would be such a waste and disgrace if the children are smart but untrustworthy and dishonest.
The limitations of formal education have made some parents worried that they are putting their children in the wrong hands. The community opts for alternative education that suits their child's needs. Among the choices they have is homeschooling. Saputro (2007) explained that there are many reasons for parents to choose homeschooling. Among the factors of this scenario are parents are not satisfied with formal education, children need to have more social time, their children are able to have better academic materials, they are able to carry out certain religious values, and their children have a good manner. Maulia (2007) explained that homeschooling was a feasible alternative concept, implemented to give everyone the choice in mastering their knowledge in accordance with their respective styles. Linsenbach (2010) explained that parents do not need to be professional teachers when they choose homeschooling. Children are natural learners, while parents are teachers by nature (Woodward, 2015).
The existence of homeschooling in developed countries had begun to grow for a long time. In 1999, about 850 thousand children went to home-schools. In America, there were about 1.1 million children studying at home in 2003. Studies by the National Centre for Education Statistics (NHES) on parents who chose to educate their children through homeschooling found that 31 percent of them were concerned towards the school environment, and 30 percent stated that the main reason for their choice was to provide religious and moral lessons. Meanwhile, 16 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the academic system at school. This situation is not much different in Indonesia. Many parents have begun to choose homeschooling to educate their children (Prasetyo, 2015).
Indonesia is one of the countries that enthusiastic towards the concept of homeschooling. It grows numerously in large cities like Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Makassar. The status of homeschooling in Indonesia is legal and it has been regulated under the National Education System No. 20 Year 2003. In Article 13, paragraph 1, it is stated that the education path consists of complementary formal, non-formal, and informal education. Homeschooling itself is included in informal education because it is a form of family education (Depdiknas, 2003). Legally, the homeschooling system is recognized to be of the same level as formal education because students can sit the exams organized by the Ministry of Education through the test of equality. Therefore, the community does not have to worry about the recognition of homeschooling in the aspect of legislation.
Some parent’s view the ever-changing school curriculum has made textbooks to be constantly altered, thus, the burden of subjects grows. In addition, socialization in schools affects the behaviour of children that makes parents more agitated. Due to the mistrust of this formal education, parents perceive homeschooling to have some advantages over the conventional education system. It can be seen that homeschooling provides more freedom of individual creativity and provides opportunities to achieve the best competency (Prasetyo, 2015). For this reason, some parents use the homeschooling system to ensure that their child develops in accordance with their own potential and grow to be someone of noble character (Kurniasih 2009). The family chooses to be responsible for educating their own children on a home-based basis. Although parents are responsible for educating their children, homeschooling education is not only taken care of by parents. Parents can call personal tutors to teach their child with subjects or courses of interest. In keeping with its name, homeschooling is always home-based; however, parents are free to choose another location for their children's education (Kurniasih 2009).
Ka Seto Homeschooling is one of the earliest homeschooling systems in Indonesia. It is very popular and has many branches throughout Indonesia. In practice, homeschooling Ka Seto exercises the curriculum from the National Education Department modified with psychology and child development theory, learning theory, technology advancement and local issues, social, economic and community culture (Himmatul, 2008). In addition in an effort to introduce the concept of home-based education through socialization among friends, Ka Seto also now introduces Distance Learning that is tailored to the needs of students and their parents. It has a website for its school information at www.hsks.sch.id. Therefore, this study is aimed to explore the value of moral education in the homeschooling system in Ka Seto Muliady Homeschooling Community, in Jakarta, Indonesia. It also aimed to review the approaches used in training these moral values to students at Ka Seto Homeschooling.
This study was qualitative using case study design, document analysis and semi structured interview to obtain data. Purposive sampling was employed in sample selection for the interview. It involved a principal, two tutors or teachers who have been teaching for at least six months at Ka Seto, and four junior high school students who have been officially enrolled for at least three months. In the data analysis, the researcher conducted some steps which were: data reduction, data display, and conclusion-verification.
To achieve the effectiveness of moral education, the administration of Ka Seto Homeschooling has its own way of teaching and learning. Each subject to be taught comes with moral values that are already organized and embedded in the Ka Seto curriculum. For that purpose, the school always conducts parental socialization programs to familiarize them with courses and subjects at the beginning of the semester. Parents will be explained the content and orientation of the learning that their child will go through during the semester. This is to empower parents so that they will be able to help teachers either at school or at home in educating morals to their children. Among the teachers' responses were:
"So, earlier before new session begins, we will have a socialization program with parents. For instance, we hold so-called edu-trip activities. Parents will be explained the important matters about the course to be learned by students"(G1S1).
From the interviews, Ka Seto expects a high commitment from parents in educating their children. They are given explanation on the expected learning outcomes because their children will be at home longer than they are at school. Hence, parents and children need to spend time wisely at home for education and learning. This is in contrast to the current school system where students spend time longer in schools and parents are less committed to their child's education.
Moral education in Ka Seto is based on seven values. They encompass aspects of discipline, responsibility, tolerance, cooperation, self-confidence, socialization and spirituality. Each subject will choose three values to be integrated into learning. In this case, the teachers need to look at the values that are appropriate to the subjects to be taught to students (Hasrul, 2017). These seven moral values will be taught and trained in the learning process and while playing in the school area. Ka Seto hopes that these moral values will be able to produce students who are knowledgeable and are of high morality.
"In Ka Seto Homeschooling, from primary, secondary and high schools, our moral education is based on seven values. These values are discipline, responsibility, socialization, tolerance, cooperation, self-confidence, and spirituality. We hope that when children have graduated from Ka Seto Homeschooling, they will have these seven values and progress in those seven values” (G1S7).
According to the respondent, moral education at Ka Seto Homeschooling is integrated. This finding is in line with the studies by Ricca and Puji (2014) which demonstrate academic planning based on smart vision. Good character is the basic objective of learning outcomes. These seven moral values are embedded in subjects and daily activities at Ka Seto. Teachers will work optimally to take advantage of their time and opportunities to help students in building good characters. These are self-described by students:
"Tutor helps students to have good character. We are trained to be disciplined, tolerant and responsible ... Yes; the relationship with God must be strong" (P1S8).
"The tutors here are good. Their lecture and teaching often remind us to always be kind. Emm... but it's not too formal. There is flexibility and less formality. They seem to know what we need to do to be good people" (P2S8).
This situation is in line with Mulyadi (2007) view that education in homeschooling needs to be informal. Flexibility and elasticity are they way homeschooling works. Its planning cannot be rigid and too structured like it is in formal schools. Therefore, the application of moral values in Ka Seto is not too strict in following the seven values. Students of good character will be further polished while those with poor character will be trained by cognitively introducing value recognition, affective value appreciation, and practice of values in everyday life (Ricca & Puji, 2014).
Monitoring and evaluation of the character and personality development of students involves three parties, namely school management, teachers and parents. Given that student spend more time at home, and then indeed parents should be involved in the process of their child's moral education. Management of schools and teachers will always communicate with parents through applications, SMS, phones and face-to-face meetings. Evaluation of parental commitment is also done to motivate parents to share the same mission in their child's education. This finding supports the view of Himmatul (2008) in the study entitled Homeschooling Concept According to Dr. Seto Mulyadi from Islamic Education Perspective. For Waghid (2011), there are five conditions for parents who want to implement homeschooling effectively. Those requirements are: love of children, creative, is friends to children, understand children, and be aware of the national competency and curriculum standards.
Ka Seto Homeschooling, in Jakarta strives to apply seven noble values of moral education to its students. They hope that students have good values in terms of discipline, responsibility, tolerance, cooperation, self-confidence, socialization and spirituality. These values are flexibly trained and embedded in Ka Seto's subjects, activities and affairs by taking into account the different characteristics of individuals. School management, teachers and parents play a role in educating morality to students. In fact, in keeping with the concept of homeschooling, parents have a major and primary role in educating morals because their children spend more time at home.
There is no doubt that moral education in homeschooling is not a perfect one. The diversity of students’ backgrounds, parental attitudes and struggle of school management are definitely a constraint in the process of moral education in homeschooling. But it cannot be denied that the values and approach to educating moral this way make homeschooling institutions are of great benefit to education system of Indonesia. Child education is not only about academic, but also moral and manners. Homeschooling which is family-based education narrows the gap between students and their parents and teachers in learning. This makes them comfortable, motivated and passionate in learning, thinking and innovating.
This article is extracted from the University Research Grant. Reference number: UniSZA/FKI/2018/02. Special thanks go to the Research Management, Innovation and Commercialization Centre (RMIC), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin for the funding.