Leading 937 Muhammadiyah educational institutions in East Java from primary schools to senior secondary schools for seven years to realise a higher quality Muhammadiyah Education is not an easy task. However, that is what Dr Arbaiyah Yusuf, M.A., has been working on with the concept of Muhammadiyah Future School.
East Java is the 2nd most Muhammadiyah education center in Indonesia. Of the 3,334 Muhammadiyah schools in Indonesia, as many as 479 institutions exist in East Java (136 elementary schools, 180 junior high schools, 85 high schools, and 78 vocational schools). Likewise, the number of Muhammadiyah madrasahs is 1,908 institutions in Indonesia, as many as 458 institutions are in East Java (339 MI, 85 MTs, and 34 MA).
Leading these 937 Muhammadiyah schools in East Java is obviously tough. Nevertheless, Dr Arbaiyah Yusuf, M.A., who was trusted as the Chairperson of the Primary and Secondary Education Council of the Muhammadiyah Regional Board of East Java for 2015-2022, considered this duty her responsibility and challenge, which aimed to turn the Muhammadiyah schools and madrasahs in East Java as the reference for other educational institutions.
MFS is an assessment event for superior schools at the Muhammadiyah East Java college level from elementary / MI level to SMA / MA / SMK level. There are about 105 instruments that must be filled and prepared for the equipment, both through documents and physical evidence. Physical evidence can be in the form of infrastructure or other tools, such as interviews with school residents.
For that reason, Arbaiyah –her nickname– then formulated various strategies to advance Muhammadiyah Education in East Java. The Strategic Planning of the Primary and Secondary Education Council of the Muhammadiyah Regional Board of East Java prepared for the 2011-2025 working period. In the preparation, Arbaiyah was involved in the formulating process so that it was actually implemented. One of which was forming the characters of excellent students through Muhammadiyah Future School (MFS). “There are many goals to achieve in realising Muhammadiyah Future School. One of which is to create schools that promote good characters, morals, and achievements,” said the mother of one child.
MFS is an assessment event for superior schools at the Muhammadiyah East Java college level from elementary / MI level to SMA / MA / SMK level. There are about 105 instruments that must be filled and prepared for the equipment, both through documents and physical evidence. Physical evidence can be in the form of infrastructure or other tools, such as interviews with school residents.
Arbaiyah also encouraged all schools and madrasahs to move forward together. If there was any school that had developed and gained some achievements, the management of that school should help the other schools or madrasahs in the region that were still developing to make progress together. Therefore, no wonder Muhammadiyah schools and madrasahs have almost even quality on their schools.
This spirit drove Arbaiyah to believe that the literacy and numeracy program, in collaboration with INOVASI, could be implemented successfully and could expand independently. When she was appointed to implement the first phase of the literacy and numeracy program (2019-2020) in Jember, Sidoarjo, Ngawi, and Trenggalek Districts, this program was successfully carried out despite the obstacles to the program dissemination due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This success led to the second phase (2021-2022) that involved six locations: Lamongan District, Malang District, Gresik District, Surabaya City, Sidoarjo District, and Ponorogo District.
Learning from the first phase, Arbaiyah planned a strategy to expand the literacy and numeracy program even more. The first step was introducing the elements of Muhammadiyah into the literacy and numeracy module. “We did not review the module in the first phase. So, in the second phase, we consider embedding the Muhammadiyah values in the module that will be used following the inputs from the districts in the first phase. In this way, the literacy and numeracy program can be implemented in line with Muhammadiyah’s movement,” explained Arbaiyah, who is also a member of the East Java Education Council for 2022-2027.
In the module adaptation, Arbaiyah involved six Muhammadiyah higher educations in six districts, namely Universitas Muhammadiyah Lamongan, Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik, Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya, and Universitas Muhammadiyah Ponorogo. The involvement of universities under the management of Muhammadiyah was expected to develop the competencies of the lecturers involved, who would develop their respective institutions.
Arbaiyah subsequently appointed Local Coordinators as the program implementers in each district. Not less importantly, Arbaiyah expected all partner districts to disseminate the literacy and numeracy program independently to a wider range. Until today, the dissemination has been conducted in Gresik District, Malang District, Surabaya City, Lamongan District, and Sidoarjo District. Moreover, the partner districts in the first phase, where the dissemination activities were constrained by the pandemic, began to catch up on the dissemination. Those districts were Jember District, Trenggalek District, and Ngawi District. A total of 751 teachers independently attended the dissemination of the literacy and numeracy program in nine districts.
The peak of all programs, both in collaboration with INOVASI and other programs of the Primary and Secondary Education Council, was presenting the awards to several Muhammadiyah educational institutions through the Muhammadiyah Education (ME) Awards, an annual event since 2012. Arbaiyah admitted that the schools and madrasahs involved in INOVASI’s literacy and numeracy program swiftly made progress and became high-quality educational institutions.
“The ME Awards reflected the incessant efforts of the Primary and Secondary Education Council of Muhammadiyah to become people’s choice to manifest Muhammadiyah future leaders with the spirit of being pioneers, resilience, and determination. I admit that the involvement of the schools and madrasahs in INOVASI’s program accelerated their progress to increase their quality. Some of them even turned the table and appeared as the winners at the ME Awards,” she claimed.
Leading hundreds of educational institutions where the principals were mostly men did not discourage her. “I always remind others to embrace all parties in advancing the Muhammadiyah educational institutions together so that they can continue collecting more achievements and become the goal of Indonesian children. Instead of figuring out who does what, we should focus on doing our best and move forward together,” she explained.
Recently, Arbaiyah has been trusted as the Vice Chairperson of the Primary and Secondary Education Council for Nonformal Education of Muhammadiyah Central Board for 2022-2027. According to Arbaiyah, as the only woman who serves as the vice chairperson, occupying the national level role with a wider working area was the opportunity to disseminate Muhammadiyah Future School to other Muhammadiyah institutions across Indonesia.