Private Muslim Schools

Pesantren Nurul Haramain

At an Islamic boarding school, we visited the girls’ part of the pesantren. We were soon surprised by how well these girls spoke English. We understood that language was one of the subjects they used most time on. They did not speak Indonesian in this school, only English and Arabic. The school did well in languages, but subjects like maths and science were still behind the public schools.

The teacher we interviewed was not very happy with the situation in Lombok. This because of the Chinese, they have monopoly on everything. And whenever an Indonesian tries to open a shop in a Chinese controlled trade, he is soon out of business. The Chinese have the economy to lower the prices so that the Indonesian goes out of business. The reason for the Chinese power in the economy is said to be Suharto’s mistake, because he brought them into the government as his advisers, and it has been said that it is the Chinese who controlled the government then.

The girls on the school are said to be good Muslims, and they pray five times a day, and they are smiling and laughing constantly. This might be because they know they are extremely lucky to have the chance to attend to this school. The principal and founder of the school was a real idealist. He had not only founded the school, but he was also leading a big tree planting organization. And he was now planning to buy computers and get Internet access at the school. Taking a degree on the Internet would make university education easier for poor students.

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