Becoming A Substitute For Minister Of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, This Santri Immediately Asked For More Hours Of Religious Lessons

Photo via Ministry of Religion

JAKARTA - Yaqut Cholil Qoumas renounced the status of Minister of Religion and handed over to Probolinggo Afi Ahmad Ridlo. In front of the leaders of the Ministry of Religion, Afi asked his 'men' to be able to think about the discourse of increasing the hours of religious subjects.

Afi is a student from the Nurul Jadid Islamic Boarding School, Paiton, the winner of the One Day Ministerial Competition organized by the Ministry of Religion in the context of Santri Day 2021. Afi is actually still in grade 12 of the Madrasah Aliyah Nurul Jadid. But he is not afraid to present his ideas even in front of high-ranking ministry officials.

He said, Indonesia is faced with various problems of the weak morality of the younger generation. When the phenomenon of moral decay occurs, religious education is always in the spotlight. Ironically, if you look at the education curriculum in public schools, religious lessons are only given two hours of lessons a week.

"This kind of thing should be our common concern. What improvements can be made if religious education is only given two hours a week," Afi said in front of echelon I officials of the Ministry of Religion, quoted from the ministry's official website, Friday, October 22.

"We must immediately move to make improvements. Quantitatively, we need to increase the hours of religious subjects in schools," he added.

Not wasting the opportunity, Afi also took advantage of this moment to issue all his ideas for the development of religious life. One of them is related to religious education.

"In addition to quantitative, we also need to make improvements in terms of qualitative," said this teenager born in Lumajang.

"Education from all religions should be able to provide a transfer of value for students. This means that what we can do is a qualitative approach," said Afi, who is proficient in speaking in English and Arabic.

"We provide training for teachers. We upgrade the skills. Because one of the keys to improving education is the quality of the teaching staff," he said.