Early childhood Islamic religious education in Indonesia: "The case of Raudhatul Athfal"

Religion and education are related to the countries' policies and ideologies; it differs from country to country. In short, the system of religious education in a country depends on the state ideology. Based on data from PEW Research Center, Indonesia got the first rank as the home for the world's largest Muslim populations where there are about 203.000.000 Muslim live in Indonesia. In Indonesia, religious education is not just allowed, but farther it is necessary and compulsory in both public and private schools from Kindergarten until university degree as well. This study aims to offer a closer look at the Islamic religious education for early childhood in Islamic-based kindergartens or Raudhatul Athfal in Indonesia. In this context: curriculum, textbooks, teaching methods, activities, the policies, qualifications of the teachers, the views and opinions of the teachers, as well as the challenges and problems at Raudhatul Athfal were examined and evaluated. This study used qualitative methods and purposive sampling for selecting the study group. Interview and documentation methods were used for data collection. The interview session were done by interviewing and asking some questions to the Raudhatul Athfal teachers based on the interview form, while documentation were done using literature review from academic books, international publications, and the state constitution. The data from interviews with participants and literature were analyzed using the content analysis method. The most important finding of this study is that Islamic religious education for early childhood in Raudhatul Athfal has received very good attention and support from various parties, but even so, Raudhatul Athfal cannot be separated from various kinds of problems and challenges such as curriculum problems, teacher qualifications, the misunderstandings about the calistung / reading, writing, counting tests that occur between Kindergarten and Elementary School in Indonesia, and many more. The results of this study are expected used as a media for sharing experiences, implementations, and realities happened in Raudhatul Athfal, then also can be used as a basis for evaluations of Islamic early childhood education and as a reference for regulatory authorities in drafting regulations for Islamic early childhood education in Indonesia. Keywords: Preschool, Religious Education, Raudhatul Athfal, Early Childhood, Indonesia