Before discussing the main issue, I feel that it is necessary to touch upon the general features of religious transmission in Cirebon. In general terms this transmission follows the same tradition of religious education which occurs among the Javanese at large. As Dhofier (1985:18–24) has sketched, every Javanese is taught and formally utters the confession of faith (syahadat) at least once in his life time, that is, at marriage. In most cases however, the confession of faith among the Javanese is conveyed to the child as soon as he is born. In Cirebon, as well as in other parts of Java, when a mother is giving birth the father waits outside the room just in front of the door. Soon after the new baby is born, even before it is cleaned, the midwife (dukun bayi) puts the baby on a round bamboo tray called tampa, symbolising that its presence amongst the family is ditampa (meaning being accepted with warmth and welcome) as his presence really means adding to the number of potential believers. Immediately the midwife calls the father to enter the room to utter the adzan and iqamat (calls for prayer containing the confession of faith) at the baby's right and left ears respectively. When the father is unable to do so someone else, or the midwife herself, will do it, witnessed by both the father and the mother. This means that the first sound the child has ever heard in this world is the confession of the faith.[17]
Although the formal utterance of the confession of faith comes later, that is at circumcision for a boy and at marriage for both boy and girl, the child undergoes both informal and formal religious education during his infancy. The informal education is attained through observation of and participation in the day to day village life of which, religious activities of both adat and ibadat are essential parts. Meanwhile in Cirebon, there are at least three forms of formal religious instruction known to the villagers: ngaji, mesantren and sekolah madrasah. The intensity of both informal and formal education of the village children, however, depends very much on the parents' knowledge of and commitment to religious precepts.
One form of formal instruction almost everyone in Cirebon has experienced is ngaji (Qur'anic learning). It is a learning process carried on in the household when a child is around six years old. At this age the parents begin to teach their children to memorise step by step the short surah of the Holy Qur'an, and the incantations to be uttered in daily prayers. This is usually carried out in the evening after sunset prayer. When the parents are unable to do the teaching by themselves they send or let the children go to a neighbouring household, a tajug (prayer house) or the mosque, where such teaching (ngaji) is held.
The instruction is basically on an individual basis in which the teacher first recites the short surah verse by verse and the child repeats again and again until he grasps it by memory. The recital is presented in melodious format so that the memorisation is made easier and more convenient. At this stage, neither meaning nor understanding of the material is introduced, probably because it is considered unnecessary as the main objective of this early instruction is to give the child an acquaintance with and a basic ability to conform to the minimum requirements for being a good Muslim, especially to be able to perform daily prayers or at least to follow congregational prayers. As all incantations uttered in prayers must be performed without reading any text, the memorisation is therefore crucial. Sometimes, accompanying this instruction, rules of conduct and other religious or ethical dimensions are also added through chants and story telling (dongeng) given by the teacher (ustadz). The story may be of a real occurrence or fictitious. In many cases, it is taken from a segment or an episode in the life story of the Messengers, Sufi, or other exemplary figures.
At around seven years the child is taught the Arabic alphabet and, also step by step, to read the Holy Qur'an. The reading lesson usually starts from the first Surah of the Holy Qur'an (al-Fatihah) of the first juz (division), then jumps to the last (30th) juz. This procedure is taken partly because this juz contains short Surah (QS 78–114) and also because most of the Surah of this juz are frequently recited in the prescribed prayers. Learning this 30th juz proceeds in the reverse direction, from the shortest surah (QS 114) which consists of only a few short verses to the longer ones (QS 78). This procedure allows the child to gain an easy and gradual mastery. The standard text for this initial learning is called Turutan (literally meaning ‘something to follow’). This text is available in local book shops, containing elementary materials for learning to read the Arabic letters, al-Fatihah and Surah 114 through Surah 78 of the Holy Qur'an. The completion of this text is marked by a minor khataman (completion ceremony) in the form of syukuran or slametan. A du'a is uttered at this occasion and food is served. A bigger khataman is held upon the completion of the whole Qur'an. Further learning moves from Qur'an to Kitab (religious texts) dealing with jurisprudence (pekih or fiqh), theology (tauhid) and ethics (akhlaq, part of tasawuf). The kitab learned at ngaji varies considerably from village to village and from individual to individual, but the most commonly used are Safinah and Sullam at-Taufiq by Imam Nawawi of Banten, which contains a blend of jurisprudence, theology and ethics.
As there is no binding rule, ngaji in the village is not so effective. The proportion of ‘drop-outs’ is high. Only a few children who follow from the start proceed consistently to the completion of a certain kitab; many of them do not even complete the Turutan. Some factors which contribute to this are that older children are busy with their school work, some teaching sessions are short-lived as the teachers are volunteers, and in addition, especially since the second half of the 1960s, there has been the intrusion of television into village life. Quite often, children are tempted to watch an entertaining program on the television rather than going to the place where the Qur'anic teaching is held. When a child quits and drops out from ngaji however, it does not necessarily mean that his religious education in the village terminates. Religion is still taught in public schools; informal education by observation and participation in the village religious activities is an unavoidable process because it is part of the village life. Parents who can afford to and who are more concerned with bettering their children's religious education prefer to send them to pesantren, while some others are satisfied with sending them to the nearby madrasah.
The local term mesantren is synonymous with nyantri meaning ‘to go to,’ or ‘to learn in’ pesantren whose purpose is to become santri.[18] A young girl or boy who goes to a pesantren gets special treatment from the parents. For example, I found in Plered, a group of three boys and two girls with their suitcases going by becak being escorted by a mass of people walking behind them for a distance of seven kilometres from their village to the railway station. The escorting people were walking not because there was no means of transportation but they intentionally did this to express honour to the children going to pesantren.[19] The boys and girls were primary school graduates, who for the first time were leaving their village for Yogyakarta to start learning at Pesantren Krapyak.
Pesantren in Indonesia are officially classified by The Ministry of Religious Affairs, into four types, A, B, C and D. Type-A is that which retains the most traditional characteristics where the students (santri) stay in a boarding house (pondok) around the kiyai’s house; there is no set curriculum and thus the kyai holds full authority over the teaching-learning process including the type and depth of the offered subject matter. The method of teaching is typically ‘traditional,’ relying on the sorogan (individualised instruction) and the bandungan (collective learning) methods. In either one the santri sits around the kyai who reads, translates and explains his lessons, which are repeated or followed by his students. The lessons consist only of religious subjects and Arabic language, usually taken from or using classical religious texts. Type-B pesantren includes those which, besides offering the traditional instructions in classical texts with sorogan and bandungan, have madrasah (modern religious schools) where both religion and secular subjects are taught. The madrasah has a curriculum of its own or adopts the curriculum set by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Type-C is a pesantren which, along with providing religious education of a type-B model with both traditional instruction (sorogan and bandungan) and madrasah system, has also an ordinary public school administered by the Ministry of Education and Culture such as a Primary (SD) and Secondary (SMP and SMA). Thus, a type-C pesantren is a type-B plus public school. Finally, a type-D pesantren is that which provides only boarding accommodation to students. These students go to either madrasah or public schools somewhere outside this boarding complex. No formal instruction is given in this type of pesantren. The function of the kyai is only as a counsellor and spiritual guide to create a religious atmosphere at the complex.[20]
Currently, according to the statistical records issued by the Regional Office of Religious Affairs, there are 133 pesantren in the Regency (Kabupaten) and 7 in the city (Kotamadya) of Cirebon. Following the above classification there are 54 type-A's, 68 type-B's 16, type-C's and none of type-D. Three of the pesantren were established in the 18th century, five in the 19th and the rest are of the 20th century stock. Thus, pesantren education in Cirebon has evolved for no less than two centuries.
In Cirebonese vernacular, the word sekolah (which literally means ‘school’), can either be a verb or a noun. Used as a verb it means to go to school; as a noun it means the type of schooling (primary, secondary, general, vocational, state owned, private owned, etc). To refer to a school building, the word is sekolahan or sekolan. Thus, sekolah SD and SMP means respectively going to primary school (Sekolah Dasar) and Junior High School (Sekolah Menengah Pertama), whereas sekolahan or sekolan SD means the primary school building. The term sekolah madrasah therefore, refers to going to Madrasah (modern religious school), which can either be madrasah diniyah (which gives religious subjects) or public madrasah where both secular and religious subjects are given. Each type of madrasah consists of three levels, the primary (six years), junior secondary (three years) and senior secondary (three years). The three levels of madrasah diniyah are called Awaliyah, Wustha and ‘Ulya, whereas the three levels of public madrasah are called Ibtidaiyah, Tsanawiyah and ‘Aliyah. The proportion for the secular and religious subjects in public madrasah varies from one madrasah to another but the Ministry of Religious Affairs sets a standard of 70 per cent secular and 30 per cent religious subjects. Any private madrasah wishing to follow the Ministry's accreditation should prove that it has fully adopted this standard. The students of a standard madrasah are entitled to sit for the national examination and those who pass this examination receive the state issued certificate. This leads to an easier way to continue their education within the educational system and finally to attend an IAIN (The State Institute of Islamic Studies).[21]
According to the 1990 official record, throughout the Kabupaten and Kotamadya Cirebon, there are 373 Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI) accommodating 66,504 students, 51 Madrasah Tsanawiyah accommodating 9543 students and 20 Madrasah ‘Aliyah accommodating 5466 students. Most of them follow the curriculum set by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.[22] Only 21 of the schools are Madrasah Diniyah, one of which is Madrasah “Budi Tresna” whose song was cited early in this Chapter.
At present, madrasah undeniably play an important role in the transmission of religious knowledge both in the urban and rural areas. Their presence in the Islamic educational arena in Indonesia, especially on Java, has involved a long and complex process, but certainly, the madrasah system is quite a recent (20th century) development.[23] Madrasah, however, stands as complementary to and not as a substitute for the older form of religious learning institute, the pesantren. Along with the development of madrasah, some pesantren may have disappeared but some others have flourished. Although there has been a changing attitude and more and more people rely on madrasah, people do not expect too much from it beyond the acquirement of a basic knowledge of religion.[24] Until now it is the pesantren rather than the madrasah that is considered to be the real place for acquiring advanced knowledge of religion especially when the student intends to ‘know religious rules’ (kanggo ngerti ning hukum). The people regard the expected result from going to madrasah, without learning at pesantren, is only fair (lumayan), a little better than not knowing anything at all (tenimbang bli ngerti babar pisan).[25] Thus, although madrasah is important, its depth and intellectual level are considered inferior to the pesantren. Even among the IAIN graduates, those who have prior pesantren education have more potential depth in their religious knowledge and understanding compared to those who do not.[26] Institutionally too, madrasah are also said to be the offspring of pesantren. In the next section I wish to concentrate my discussion on the role of pesantren in the transmission of religious traditions.