Beyond The Classroom: Charting Indonesia's Governmental Support In Formal And Non-Formal Buddhist Educational Initiatives

Abstract

In Indonesia, public and private schools offer general religious education subjects at elementary and secondary levels under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia. The general religious education curriculum and professional religious studies schools are administered and supervised by the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia. Buddhism falls under the purview of the Directorate General of Buddhist Community Guidance, whereas the Directorate of Islamic Education manages Islamic Education. Law number 20 of 2003 governs the national education system in Indonesia, which encompasses formal education provided by state and community institutions, non-formal education, and informal education within families. The impact of law number 20 of 2003 is that the Government of the Republic of Indonesia's state Revenue and Expenditure Budget (Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Negara/ APBN) allocates 20% for education. No study has compared the government's state revenue and expenditure budget for education for Islam and Buddhism. This study compares the Indonesian government's approaches toward sponsoring Islamic and Buddhist religious education. It studies and analyses the organization of state sponsorship, the impact of this organization of state sponsorship, and suggests solutions for the current imbalance of the state sponsorship towards Buddhists and Islamic general (Pendidikan Agama) and technical religious (Pendidikan Keagamaan) education. This comparative study uses the document analysis method. Primary sources are government regulations on general education and religious education, while secondary sources use performance reports from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and research reports published in journals. Ministry of Religious Affairs performance reports can be accessed online, and permission was granted for using them as a source document in this research from the Directorate General of Buddhist Community Guidance, Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia.