MUI dan Kemenag: Lembaga Penggerak Pendidikan Islam Indonesia

MUI and Kemenag: The Bodies Driving Indonesian Islamic Education

Indonesia’s Islamic education system is governed and guided by two distinct types of institution whose roles, authorities, and approaches to Islamic education are fundamentally different — and understanding both is essential for anyone seeking to understand, manage, or navigate the Indonesian Islamic education landscape.

Kementerian Agama Republik Indonesia (Kemenag) — the Ministry of Religious Affairs — is the government body with formal regulatory authority over madrasah, pesantren, and other Islamic educational institutions. It sets curriculum standards, manages EMIS data, allocates BOS (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah) funding, and enforces compliance requirements.

Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) — the Indonesian Ulema Council — is the top Islamic scholarly body in Indonesia, representing the Islamic clerical and intellectual tradition. It issues fatwas, advises on Islamic ethics and practice, and through its Komisi Pesantren and Komisi Pendidikan dan Kaderisasi, engages directly with the direction and quality of Islamic education.

Neither can be understood in isolation. Together, they define the institutional environment in which Indonesia’s madrasah, pesantren, and TPQ/TPA operate.

Kementerian Agama: The Regulatory Authority

Kementerian Agama — often abbreviated as Kemenag — has formal regulatory authority over Islamic education in Indonesia through three main mechanisms:

1. Kurikulum Madrasah (Madrasah Curriculum)

Kemenag sets the curriculum for all formal madrasah — Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI), Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs), and Madrasah Aliyah (MA). The Kurikulum Madrasah specifies both the Islamic studies subjects (Al-Quran Hadith, Aqidah Akhlak, Fiqh, Sejarah Kebudayaan Islam, Arabic Language) and the general national education subjects that all madrasah must teach. Madrasah that operate outside this curriculum framework — running their own independent Islamic curriculum without the national component — are classified differently (typically as Madrasah Diniyah or pesantren-internal programmes).

The transition from Kurikulum 2013 to the newer Kurikulum Merdeka (Merdeka Curriculum) has been an active process in recent years, with research comparing student learning outcomes between the two frameworks specifically in Islamic education contexts such as Aqidah Akhlak at the MTs level.

2. EMIS (Education Management Information System)

Kemenag’s EMIS is the primary national data platform for all Islamic educational institutions under its supervision. As of the September 2025 EMIS data snapshot for Sumatera Utara alone: 440 pondok pesantren recorded, with detailed data on ustadz/ustadzah numbers and santri counts per kabupaten/kota.

Every registered madrasah (MI, MTs, MA), pondok pesantren, and Islamic educational centre must report to EMIS:

• Student enrolment data (total santri/murid, breakdown by jenjang and gender)
• Teaching staff data (total ustadz/ustadzah, qualifications)
• Facility data (infrastructure, building condition)
• Programme data (pesantren type — salaf, khalaf, tahfiz, terpadu — and programme offerings)

EMIS data is used for BOS allocation, government planning, and policy evaluation. Institutions that maintain inaccurate or outdated EMIS data lose the ability to access BOS funding they are entitled to and distort national planning calculations.

3. BOS (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah)

The BOS grant — operational school assistance — is Kemenag’s primary mechanism for supporting private madrasah financially. Every Swasta (private) MI, MTs, and MA that meets registration requirements is entitled to BOS funding on a per-student basis.

BOS brings significant accountability obligations. Recipient institutions must report on how BOS funds are used — a requirement that many smaller madrasah struggle to meet when their financial management relies on handwritten exercise books. Research from Pondok Pesantren Al-Hidayah Rantau Rasau and similar institutions consistently documents that manual financial management creates errors in input, difficulties in compiling monthly reports, and low accountability that makes BOS reporting burdensome.

Digital financial management — with automatic BOS report generation from entered data — is one of the highest-value capabilities any Indonesian madrasah can acquire.

4. UU No. 18 Tahun 2019 (Law on Pesantren)

The 2019 Pesantren Law established five compulsory elements that a pesantren must have for official recognition: Kyai, santri mukim (residential students), asrama (dormitory), Masjid/Musala, and kajian kitab kuning/dirasah islamiyah dengan pola muallimin (study of classical Islamic texts using the traditional teaching method). Pesantren that wish to receive government recognition and access government support programmes must demonstrate these five elements.

The Pesantren Law also established a framework for government funding of pesantren — including the dana abadi pesantren (pesantren endowment fund) and operational support schemes that parallel the BOS for madrasah.

Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI): The Scholarly Voice

MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia) was founded on 26 July 1975 in Jakarta during the New Order era. It is Indonesia’s top Islamic scholars’ body, comprising representatives from Indonesia’s major Muslim organisations — Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Muhammadiyah, LDII, Syarikat Islam, Perti, Al Washliyah, Mathla’ul Anwar, GUPPI, PTDI, DMI, Al Ittihadiyyah, and others.

The government’s three broad goals for MUI at its founding were: strengthening religion in the way the Pancasila describes; disseminating fatwas to guide Indonesian Muslims; and serving as a bridge between the government and the Muslim community.

MUI’s Komisi Pendidikan dan Kaderisasi

MUI’s Komisi Pendidikan dan Kaderisasi (Commission for Education and Leadership Development) is the commission within MUI specifically responsible for Islamic education and the development of Islamic scholarly leadership.

In November 2025, ahead of the Musyawarah Nasional (Munas) MUI 2025, the Komisi Pendidikan dan Kaderisasi held a national programme socialisation event themed “Membangun SDM Ulama dan Pendidik Umat yang Moderat dan Berintegritas” (Building Moderate and Integrous Human Resources for Ulama and Islamic Educators). MUI’s Secretary General, Buya Amirsyah Tambunan, emphasised that MUI must be consistent in education — through teachers, ustadz, and mubaligh, strengthening the moral and ethical formation of the ummah. He also warned about the dangers of young people’s dependence on gadgets, artificial intelligence, online gaming, and online gambling — and noted that only collaboration between MUI and government, with MUI serving as both shadiqul hukumah (government partner) and khodimul ummah (servant of the ummah), can address these challenges.

MUI’s Komisi Pesantren

The Komisi Pesantren MUI (MUI’s Pesantren Commission) works specifically on pesantren governance and development. In early 2026, the Komisi Pesantren was working with Kemenag to design a new transmigration programme targeting pesantren alumni families — recognising the pesantren’s three primary mandates: education, dakwah, and economic empowerment.

The Komisi Pesantren MUI emphasises the importance of strengthening educational governance in pesantren — covering the full spectrum from formal pesantren models to non-formal and hybrid curricula. This governance emphasis — pushing pesantren toward more structured, accountable institutional management — is directly relevant to the digitalisation agenda for Indonesian pesantren.

MUI Fatwas Relevant to Islamic Education

MUI’s fatwa-issuing role extends to questions that affect Islamic educational practice. Fatwas on the permissibility of various educational methods, the status of different types of Islamic qualification, and the boundaries of acceptable Islamic educational content all have practical implications for how madrasah and pesantren operate. Administrators who encounter questions about the permissibility of specific practices — whether in curriculum content, teacher-student relationships, or institutional governance — should be aware that MUI fatwas provide authoritative guidance within the Sunni Islamic scholarly tradition.

NU and Muhammadiyah: The Pesantren Tradition Bearers

No discussion of Indonesian Islamic education governance is complete without acknowledging the two largest Muslim organisations in the world, both headquartered in Indonesia:

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) — with over 90 million members — is the organisation most deeply connected to the traditional pesantren tradition. NU pesantren typically follow the Pesantren Salaf model — Kitab Kuning, the Kyai-centred teaching tradition, and the full residential Islamic environment. NU’s educational network includes thousands of pesantren, madrasah, and schools across Indonesia. LP Ma’arif NU is the NU educational body that manages the formal madrasah network within the NU tradition.

Muhammadiyah — with approximately 60 million members — has historically been associated with the modernist Islamic educational tradition: integrated schools, formal curricula, and an emphasis on combining Islamic education with modern sciences. Muhammadiyah operates thousands of schools, madrasah, and universities across Indonesia. Its educational philosophy emphasises tajdid (renewal) and is more open to curriculum integration than the traditional pesantren model.

Both NU and Muhammadiyah are member organisations of MUI, and the relationship between their distinct educational philosophies — traditional versus modernist — is a productive tension that has driven Indonesian Islamic education’s evolution for a century.

The Governance Triangle: Kemenag + MUI + NU/Muhammadiyah

For the practical administrator of an Indonesian pesantren or madrasah, the governance triangle can be summarised as:

Kemenag provides the regulatory framework — curriculum, BOS, EMIS, teacher certification, legal recognition. Comply with Kemenag requirements to access government support and maintain legal standing.

MUI provides the scholarly guidance — fatwas on educational questions, moral and ethical direction for Islamic education, policy advocacy for the priorities of the Islamic scholarly community. Engage with MUI guidance for questions of Islamic educational philosophy and practice.

NU or Muhammadiyah (depending on your institutional affiliation) provides community belonging, curriculum traditions, teacher training networks, and peer institution relationships. Being embedded in an established Islamic educational network gives institutions access to resources, expertise, and community trust that independent institutions must build from scratch.

Digital Infrastructure That Serves All Three

A pesantren or madrasah that maintains digital records serves all three governance relationships simultaneously:

• EMIS reporting to Kemenag becomes a routine export rather than an annual crisis
• BOS accountability to Kemenag becomes a systematic report generated from financial records already entered
• MUI’s emphasis on good governance (tata kelola) is demonstrated through transparent, documented institutional management
• NU/Muhammadiyah network participation is supported by institutional data that can be shared with network oversight bodies

Ilmify’s EMIS-compatible export, BOS financial reporting capability, three-stream Hifz tracking, wali santri portal, and offline-first architecture address all four of these dimensions — providing the digital infrastructure through which a well-governed Indonesian pesantren or madrasah demonstrates its commitment to the standards that Kemenag, MUI, and the broader Islamic educational tradition call for.