Foreword
Assalamualaikum, wr.wb
Greetings for us all.
Dear readers,
SETARA Institute is a national research and policy advocacy organization with a concern for advancing the human rights condition and the elimination or minimalization of discrimination and intolerance based on religion, ethnicity, skin color, gender, and other social classes in Indonesia. SETARA Institute believes that a democratic society will advance if empathy, respect, and recognition of diversity shall bloom, thus SETARA Institute is dedicated to achieving the ideals in which everyone is treated equally with respect towards diversity, prioritizing solidarity and with the goal of dignifying humans.
Since 2007, SETARA Institute alongside other civil organizations consistently work towards the realization of the freedom of religion/belief in Indonesia, which was normatively included in the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, especially Article 28E paragraph (1) and paragraph (2). Various civil organizations did observations, research, policy advocation, and strategic litigation as a means to encourage the state to fulfill its responsibility in protecting the right of citizens to freedom of religion, and belief, including the right to worship and carry out religious activities.
SETARA Institute hypothesizes that intolerance is the first step toward terrorism or violent extremism. Thus, tolerance is one of the key variables in guiding and realizing social harmony and inclusion, as well as developing a Pancasila state with the foundation of the freedom of religion as affirmed by the first principle of Pancasila and guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution, specifically Article 29 Paragraph (2).
In terms of tolerance, SETARA Institute understands that education especially high school is a vulnerable place where the seeds of intolerance spread targeting adolescents. In addition to the psychological aspects of adolescents which are determining factors in reading situations and conditions of tolerance for adolescents, other factors such as educational policies, curricula, learning models, quality of teachers, evaluation standards, and several other educational entities are also elements that can influence the portrait of tolerance at the adolescent level, especially at educational settings.
Previously, SETARA Institute had portrayed the situation of adolescent tolerance in high schools by conducting a survey of 760 students of public high schools in Jakarta and Bandung Raya in 2015. The survey shows that there were problems at the teacher level, especially religious teachers in providing an understanding of the meaning of tolerance or diversity. This means that teachers were still not optimal in providing plural religious knowledge and are unable to make civics education as an effective medium to strengthen tolerance amid plurality.
In respect of knowing the current situation of perception and attitude of adolescents toward tolerance, SETARA Institute again conducted a similar survey in 5 regions, namely Surabaya, Bogor, Depok, Surakarta, and Padang in 2023. Compared to the previous similar data, it is shown an increasing number of tolerant which was contributed by the shrinking of a passive tolerant group. The latest survey found five factors that could affect the tolerance/intolerance behavior of adolescents, namely: the understanding of national insight, the use of social media intensely, respondent activity, religious behavior, and social economic condition. The survey
results update the baseline on tolerance among students to allow for more relevant interventions by all stakeholders in accordance with their respective areas of focus and institutional mandates.
For the completion of this report, I would like to express my highest gratitude to all SETARA Institute’s researchers, local field researchers, enumerators, activist friends, and experts who are involved either in the data gathering process even in the finalization of the survey results. Finally, we hope that this study will give a more comprehensive portrait of tolerance in educational settings and can be used for the benefit of all people to create a better situation on tolerance, particularly among high school students.
Jakarta, May 29, 2023
Chairman of SETARA Institute for Democracy and Peace
Dr. Ismail Hasani, S.H., M.H.
To learn more, please view the report below: