PPIM UIN Jakarta conducts a survey on Pandemic and Religious Views of Indonesian Students

Rectorate, UIN News Online – The level of compliance of senior high school students in following health protocols during the Covid 19 pandemic need to be improved. On the other hand, their religious understanding also affects the level of obedience.

These are the findings of the national survey "Pandangan Siswa Sekolah/Madrasah tentang Agama, Pandemi, dan Bencana" launched by PPIM UIN Jakarta, Wednesday (01/05/2022). The research findings were presented by Research Coordinator Yunita Faela Nisa and researcher Narila Mutia Nasir.

The survey itself was carried out simultaneously in 34 provinces from September 1 to October 7, 2021 with 2358 samples from 3031 initial samples. All samples are senior high school students, both in educational institutions under the auspices of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture and the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs, from various religious and ethnic backgrounds.

“The important finding is that health protocols, healthy living behavior, and vaccinations among students need to be improved. In addition, during the Covid 19 pandemic, the level of Islamism among Indonesian students was also relatively high. This, of course, needs to be taken into account,” said Yunita.

In terms of health protocols, Narila added, the survey noted that 41.20% of students neglecting to wash their hands. Then, 20.10% were neglecting to wear masks, 42.40% neglecting to keep their distance, and 64.80% neglecting to avoid the crowds.

Healthy living behavior is also not implemented properly by the students. The survey noted that 70% of the sample of students ignored exercise at least 30 minutes per day, 50.50% of students showed irregular sleep patterns, and 43.40% had an unbalanced diet.

Regarding vaccination, during the survey period, the research team found that 47.42% of the sample had been vaccinated. Meanwhile, the percentage of students who have not been vaccinated is 52.88%.

Furthermore, the survey also noted that religious factors also influenced student compliance in carrying out health protocols and vaccinations. The survey found 12.88% of students nationwide think that vaccination is against their religious teaching.

In addition, 39% of students believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is a punishment from God. Then, about 48% of respondents have a fatalistic attitude or believe that human efforts do not mean much because everything, including health has been determined by God.

The survey also shows that around 20% to 30% of respondents believe hoaxes or conspiracy theories related to COVID-19. For example, around 31.5% of respondents believed rumors that hospitals deliberately turned patients into COVID-19 patients in order to get costs for treating COVID-19 patients provided by the government.

From the point of view of Islamism, Yunita revealed, the survey findings on Muslim students found various developments in the attitude of Islamism in 2021 compared to a similar survey in 2017. The definition of Islamism in this research is limited to absolute, closed, inward looking and exclusive religious views in responding to science developments.

There are several variables in measuring students' views of Islamism. For example, the position of OSIS Chairman must be held by Muslim students, recorded at 51.1% in 2021 from 55.7% in 2017. Although it has decreased, the percentage is still above 50%.

Furthermore, from their view of the caliphate, 78.5% of students believe that the system of government recognized by Islam is based on the caliphate. This percentage increased compared to the percentage in 2017 which was only 63.1%.

On the variable of belief that the application of Islamic law in Indonesia must be supported, student confidence shows that the percentage is still quite high, from 93.1% in 2017 to 91.4% in 2021. In the same period, 25.2% of students agreed that suicide bombings were part of jihad, has increased from 24.9% in 2017.

Furthermore, the survey recommends the need for the cooperation of various parties to carry out social interventions for students. The research also recommends planned and strategic interventions on the high views of students' Islamism and the need to strengthen digital literacy in order to prevent the invasion of false information in the media. (zm/usa)