An old friend who was missing in tsunami, from a close circle of Zawiyah (Dayah, Islamic boarding school) Tanoh Abee and Lam Ateuk, once told me about how strong a debate (dialog) culture is in dayahs.  That students are great debaters. That students use their time between classes and prayers reading a lot of articles including those from newspaper and magazines and discuss their readings among one another and with their mentors. A student often “jak meu-dagang[1]”, go find a higher and better school once he or she can not find anybody worth debating anymore.  An inherit process of selection to go for a further study.

Dialog in egalitarian atmosphere -- vis a vis a one way fed curriculum, is the strength of Acehnese dayah that is now missing.  Dayah is a model of informal education, indigenously very Acehnese and community-based.  It is similar, but not the same, with ‘pesantren’ known in other part of Indonesia. The genuine dayah is very egalitarian, the basis that form the well-know egalitarian behavior of the Acehnese society. Pesantren does not always identically perceived with the word ‘egaliter’ due to the fact that its domain is more feudalistic, a Javanese cultural system.

Dayahs in Aceh have lost its great standing when they try to become pesantren. Worse, when they try to be formal schools. Not because of the change of the name from “dayah“ to “pesantren“ or “pesantren moderen” but more of the system transformation and the change of its actors behavior: from dialog-based  to curriculum-based, from egalitarianism to feudalism, from independency to the center of power. The term traditional versus modern is not relevant anymore when leaders of “dayah modern” are the ones who behave very traditional-feudalistic. Not only are their hands to be kissed, but also that their words are not debatable. Learning becomes indoctrination and knowledge becomes a dogma. Teungku meunasah, rangkang and dayah have become kiai whose words are final because they are inheriting the teachings of the prophets.

The famous Daud Beureueh, as a leader of a dayah and people, are well-known for his praxis. Siegel (2000) noted that Abu di Beureueh always preached the importance of informed action, especially those referring to values and norms (custom, Islam). It is said that Abu, who was a leader of a movement, always tried to manifest his firmed beliefs and words into real actions. He himself was among his people clearing water streams for paddy fields when he was talking about the importance of mu’amalah, teachings in Islam about social life. Not like, as a friend said, a teungku who talks about simple life and sharing to his or her people but live hedonistically and become a slave of worldly power.   Education and leadership exemplified by Abu Beureueh is empowering, and to some extent, liberating.

Education ala “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” of Paulo Freire (1972) used to actually manifest strongly in Acehnese daily life through their dayah education system. Thus, it is not surprising that it was ‘empowering’ and ‘liberating’ its people. Only this kind of dayahs, in my opinion, are the ones “which bring glorious time for education advancement in Aceh past” as noted by Nazli Ismail in “The Lost of Dayah Mayang”. Nazli, who is working on his doctoral degree in Europe, has been very precise in self-criticizing the state of dayah today which has lost both its community self-supports and popular leadership.

Formal education in Aceh suffered greater in non-physical terms rather than physical ones from all the conflict, the quake and the tsunami of 26 December 2004. If education in Aceh to keep following blindly the national curriculum which emphasize on curriculum achievement, then education is really “a prickly way”; as noted by Dr. Salmawaty in “When Study Becomes and Prickly Way”. Although Dr. Salma still puts some hope on “competence-based curriculum” newly introduced in Indonesia, she underline the need for the socialization and dissemination of the concept so that there is no distortion in its application. Life skill and civic education need to be an integral part of formal education. As Freire emphasizes the importance of conscientization – ‘developing consciousness, but consciousness that is understood to have the power to transform reality'; and the significance of lived experience in the context of space and time of teaching and learning process for both teachers and students.

Therefore, one should not be surprised when anti-corruption “education” in Indonesia  is not working. There is only limited conscientization with weak leadership and lived experience. How one to expect anti-corruption values manifest in people’s life when people are actually witnessing corruption in its vulgar forms widely practiced? Even worse, corruption has been “taught” since early ages as indicated by Yulia Direzkia in “Between Cheating and White Crimes”

The big quake and tsunami has opened a new page for Aceh, including of the education front.  Either directly or indirectly, the catastrophe has made peace talk in Helsinki possible and gain new momentum, which concluded with an MoU between Indonesia government and GAM (The Free Aceh Movement) in Helsinki, 16 Agutus 2005. May peace be prevailed and sustained in this Darussalam, a peaceful place, one of Aceh’s nick names. Hopefully, the very much energy and resource spoiled for war soon is used for development, especially education. Saifuddin M Yunus has precisely raised the importance in his piece “The Impact of War on Education“. As we believed that education will be the basis to solve the myriad problem Aceh is facing, be it from the conflict, tsunami and other causes.

Dayah—and formal education alike , can be pivotal for Aceh education revitalization, and hence, Aceh and Indonesia re-development. This can only take place when the dayah, --as well as schools and universities, become Freirian Dayah as it used to be in Aceh.

SEE REFERRED ARTICLE
When Study becomes a Prickly Way
By: Dr. Salmawaty
Depdiknas, Office of National Education might be happy with the increase of student passing national examination this year. But not for Aceh. There are 43.2% of Aceh’s middle and high school students failing the exam.

The Poor on the Rich Land
By: Taufik Abdullah & Mohd Syharel Abdullah
North Aceh was not initially set to be industrial area. It was intended for rice-barn areas in the First Five-Year Development Plan called Repelita I (1969). But, it was not properly pursued, particularly when abundant natural gas was found around Lhoksukon in 1970s.

The Impacts of War on Education in Aceh
By: Oleh: Saifuddin M. Yunus | saifuddin.yunus@acehinstitute.org
Many historical literatures reported that wars have destroyed more social institutions than giving the constructive impacts. This theory is so real in Acehnese life. Education systems and institutions have also been destroyed.

The Lost of Dayah Manyang
By: Nazli Ismail | nazlis@lycos.com
In the past, Islamic boarding schools called dayah, a similar but not as identical concept to “pesantren” in Java, was able to play a major influence on Acehnese society, including in norms and character building. Not so different from a modern education system, dayah is divided into four levels, meunasah, rangkang, dayah, and dayah manyang (higher dayah).