THE CHALLENGES OF ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND SPIRITUALITY WITHIN HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDONESIA: THE CASE OF JAMBI PROVINCE
Islamic religious education is a mandatory subject within publich univesrities in Indonesia. The subject is intended to increase students’ religiousity and aprituality. The spirituality has become a part of higher education institutions in Indonesia. Indonesia's government has allocated resources to support the success of the implementation of the policy and reduce its challenges within universities. However, limited studies have been carried out to understand the challenges in Islamic religious education and spirituality implementation within Indonesian universities. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine the challenges of Islamic religious and spirituality implementation within higher education institutions in Indonesia. This study used a qualitative approach, and the data was gathered through field observation, in-depth interviews, and written material analysis. In-depth interviews were conducted with Islamic religious lecturers and university policymakers. This study's results show that most universities in Jambi province undermine the importance of Islamic religious education and spirituality in their Curriculum. The finding can be proven by the fact that universities employes low qualifications for Islamic religious education lectures. Besides, the universities also spend low effort in motivating their Muslim students to learn and practice Islamic religious education and spirituality. The universities also need more learning time and infrastructure to support the implementation of Islamic religious education and spirituality. We concluded that such challenges might deteriorate Islamic education within Indonesian universities in the future.
Islamic religious education, spirituality, challenges, Indonesia universities