Mahfud MD: Salary Program for Religious Teachers Applies to All Religions

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PASURUAN — Vice Presidential candidate number 03 Mahfud MD reiterated his commitment to improving the welfare of Koran teachers. Mahfud emphasized that the program would apply to teachers from all religions in Indonesia.

“We have a program and we definitely have money because the money is there, namely giving a fixed honorarium to all Koran teachers, including non-Islamic religious teachers,” said Mahfud in response to a question from a Hindu youth who attended the National Halaqoh at Darut Tauhid Cangaan, Bangil Pasuruan , East Java on Friday (12/1/2024).

The young man named Singgih wanted to know whether teachers from other religions would get salaries. Moreover, Singgih said that up to now he had known that there had been honorariums for Koran teachers. However, he feels that such honorarium does not include teachers from other religious communities such as Hindus.

“For a long time in Pasuruan there have been Koran teachers who received honorariums, but we are a minority, how come we are not paid attention like that,” said Singgih.

Apart from emphasizing that it applies to all religions, Mahfud also revealed the background of one of the programs. Mahfud explained that he himself was a graduate of a madrasah ibtidaiyah and a graduate of an Islamic boarding school.

“Taught to recite the Koran in langgar-langgar, I could become a minister, no one taught me to take care of it, the madrasa teachers, mosque marbots, madrasah diniyah, no one took care of it,” said Mahfud.

Mahfud added that so far there are quite a lot of religious teachers from communities of other religions who already have quite strong funds. For example, Catholic religious teachers have been regulated quite neatly by the Vatican.

Even so, Mahfud emphasized that the program to pay Koran teachers will apply to all religions.

“If not and it’s an official educational institution, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Confucian, Catholic, please submit it, then we’ll measure the location, how many students, what the teacher teaches, how many hours a week, we’ll calculate it, pay!” said Mahfud.