Reasons for Muhammadiyah to Be More Active in Establishing Islamic Boarding Schools

Muhammadiyah religious organizations are increasingly eager to establish a number of Islamic boarding schools, including in the campus environment.

As is known, Muhammadiyah is a religious organization that is better known for promoting school and college education. Since the beginning, Muhammadiyah has prioritized the development of the school education system. In fact, school education seems to have become a trade mark of Muhammadiyah.

However, this does not mean that Muhammadiyah does not have a concern for non-formal education systems such as pesantren. Muhammadiyah now also has many pesantren. What is the reason?

The reason Muhammadiyah began to establish many pesantren in the form of boarding schools

The following are some reasons why Muhammadiyah is increasingly active in establishing Islamic boarding schools:

1. Muhammadiyah needs to give birth to a cadre of scholars-intellect, namely cadres who master religious knowledge and also master modern science and have leadership abilities.
2. As a form of idealism integrating religious science and modern science.
3. The high interest of the community to send their children to Islamic boarding schools as an ideal place to build character and noble character.

The development and process of developing the Muhammadiyah Islamic Boarding School

So far, Islamic boarding schools under the Muhammadiyah organization have developed very rapidly, because of the public's trust and also many proud achievements have been obtained. Many Muhammadiyah universities also have ma'had ali.

The process of developing Muhammadiyah Islamic boarding schools took place naturally. There is indeed an attempt to accelerate. However, to maintain the quality of education, all must be according to ability.

The Pesantren Development Institute functions more to provide facilities and develop a holistic curriculum typical of Muhammadiyah.

Indeed, in terms of quantity, Muhammadiyah pesantren is still relatively small when compared to the number of pesantren owned by the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) organization. In fact, Pondok Pesantren is the basis for producing cadres who are tafaqquh fiddin, cadres who have good religious mastery.

Until this post was published, there are currently around 402 Muhammadiyah Islamic boarding schools across Indonesia. The data is an encouraging achievement considering that the institution in charge of the pesantren sector was only formed at the 47th Muhammadiyah Congress 2015 in Makassar, South Sulawesi.