Character Education : Direction and Priority for National Character Development in Indonesia

: This study aims to analyze how national character development is implemented and its direction, goals, and top priorities in Indonesia. This study used the systematic literature review method with a qualitative approach. Fifteen reputable national journal (Sinta) articles and ten reputable international journal (Scopus) articles were looked at for 25 pieces. The data analysis technique used in this research was thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is one way to identify patterns and find themes through the researchers' data. The results of this study showed that Indonesians developed their national character by getting used to participating in leisure and intra-curricular activities and learning. The direction of building a solid national identity was done in three stages. The consolidation stage focuses on ensuring people understand the Pancasila philosophy, the stabilization stage in various subjects, curriculum and school, family and community participation, and the development stage to increase the inauguration of Pancasila ideology-based curriculum. The most crucial part of building national character was ensuring kids grow up to be good, tolerant, and creative citizens, work together, and have integrity and a global outlook


Introduction
The reality of current national problems, including disorientation and the values of Pancasila not yet being internalized; limitations of integrated policy tools in realizing Pancasila values; shifting ethical values in the life of the nation and state; fading awareness of the nation's cultural values; and the threat of national disintegration, motivates the effort to realize the mandate of Pancasila and the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution through character development (Susilo et al., 2022).The number of crimes that grew out of children went up every year.From 2016 to 2020, the Indonesian Children Protection Commission (KPAI) found that 3178 children were grown in cybercrimes and 6500 children were grown in other crimes (Iriany, 2017); (Suryaman & Hari, 2018), a convoy of firearms among teenagers in Purwakarta (Irwan, 2021).The Indonesian Ministry of Health says about 3.8% of students have used opioids and other dangerous drugs (Kemenkes, 2020).UNICEF estimates that due to Covid-19, violence among youth in Indonesia will have reached 65% or more by 2021 (UNESCO, 2021).Character education has been implemented in face-to-face school meetings (Ammatulloh et al., 2022); (Fahrannisa et al., 2022); (Garad et al., 2021); (Haryati et al., 2021); (Riyanto et al., 2022).Meanwhile, during the Covid-19 period, learning is shifted to virtual-based education (Sangsawang, 2020).This shift has hampered many attempts to introduce character education.Teaching moral principles by serving as a positive example for students is challenging in a virtual classroom (Khadijah et al., 2021).The importance of internalizing moral principles in online education is not to be underestimated (Bugarso et al., 2021); (Ekunola et al., 2022); (Firdiarahma, 2021); (Rasim et al., 2021) because it affects the development of moral principles (Jerome & Kisby, 2022).Because of this, the success of character education in schools relies on how well teachers can learn character values (Dishon & Goodman, 2017); (Ülger et al., 2014).Character education is not a subject that students take so it can be found in every lesson (Ciampa & Wolfe, 2021); (Kibble, 1998).Character education is important for developing morals, so it should be a part of every school lesson.(Özdilek & Oncu, n.d.); (Pike et al., 2021).
Previous research studies on character education are exciting from various perspectives, including character education carried out online impacts distortions in character values during Covid-19.Character values are messed up, especially regarding religion, nationalism, freedom, cooperation, and integrity.Blended Learning is also something you need to know (Mithhar et al., 2021); the formation of strong cooperation between parties facilitates the successful implementation of Strengthening Character Education activities in junior secondary education units in the Karawang area.Extracurricular, co-curricular, and after-school programs make up the bulk of the school's offerings.Schools emphasizing character education have yet to be distinguished from those without by factors such as financial resources or school culture.Quality control in character education is still performed on an informal basis (Amirudin, 2020a); in madrasas, character education means instilling a moral attitude or behavior (akhlaqul mahmudah) that is based on the Qur'an and the values of Pancasila, which are the foundation of the Indonesian country and its philosophy.Strengthening Character Education should be used in public schools.Islamic-based private schools, oriented towards cultivating good morals combined with government regulations (Susilo et al., 2022), School culture-based character education includes 1) Character education programs, namely co-curricular and intra-curricular, extracurricular, and habituation.2) Character formation in learning process activities, and 3) Character education programs are evaluated through observation, self-evaluation, student evaluation, student notebook entries, and discussions with everyone in the school (Tabroni, Fitriani, et al., 2021).For character education to be effective, it must be visible in the process and the outcomes.Instructors must model it in their everyday lives and interactions with students in the honesty canteen (Abu et al., 2015), Humanistic theory provides the foundation for character education, which is structured to improve and fortify the moral fiber of the country as a whole.From a philosophical standpoint, humanistic education seeks to improve people by helping them develop their inherent humanity.Discovery Learning, Problem-Based Learning, and Project-Based Learning are just a few examples of humanistic pedagogical approaches that can be useful (Yudi Hartono;Samsi Haryanto;Asrowi, 2018), with a comprehensive approach that bridges the moral components of education with the social and civic spheres of student life, character education utilizes qualitative and quantitative approaches for longitudinal research studies, centering on topics on learning as a participatory process and experience (Pattaro, 2016).
Character education has three key parts: knowing good, loving good, and doing good (Lickona, 2012).Character education is also important because it helps students learn, feel, and want to do good things.He also said that noble character (good character) is knowing what is good, having the desire, to be honest, and then actually doing good.In other words, the character is a set of (cognitive) information, attitudes, and motivations, as well as behavior and skills (Lickona, 2009).Ki Hajar Dewantara's educational philosophy emphasizes that character behavior integrates heart, thought, taste and exercise.Theoretical review of a person's possible Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ), Spiritual Quotient (SQ), and Adverse Quotient (AQ) (Dewantara, 1977).Character education has three major parts: shaping and developing potential, strengthening and reshaping character, and teaching people how to filter their thoughts and actions.Potential is the primary focus of character education.It means that pupils have the opportunity to develop traits like integrity and originality.The second justification for character education is that it improves employability.Parents, educators, and policymakers are responsible for facilitating this.Individuals are allowed to contribute to expanding collective and societal capacities (Arthur, 2019); (Hart et al., 2020).
Based on the author's observations, policies to improve character education have been implemented at all levels of education, including public, private, and religion-based schools.There have also been several studies on the concept of character education theory, which is based on Ki Hajar Dewantara's educational philosophy of "exercise the heart, exercise the mind, exercise the senses, and exercise the body."The author's findings show that students' moral values change.For example, a private junior high school student in Gresik Regency challenged his teacher when the teacher told him not to smoke.In that case, a student held his teacher's collar while smoking and saying bad things (UPI, 2019); in another case, character education in Indonesia has not been able to change the behavior of any person, whether they are a child, a teenager, or an adult.People who get higher education also do not necessarily have good behavior, and this is due to a lack of awareness and arbitrary behavior without thinking about the consequences of their actions that harm others.Many victims of harassment and bullying experience mental damage, while the perpetrators do not receive strict sanctions; many people underestimate the law and make bad behavior commonplace (Kompasiana.com, 2023).In addition to the problem of moral values, there are other problems, such as the fact that strategies to improve character education in primary, secondary, and higher education are not working well (Zakaria, 2021), including 1) Character values developed in schools have yet to be translated into representative indicators.This results in our difficulty understanding character strengthening; 2) Schools have yet to choose character values that follow their vision because a lack of understanding of character examples makes schools less able to implement rules about strengthening character; 3) The teacher's understanding of character education must still be completed; 4) Teachers still need to have sufficient competence to integrate character values in the subjects they teach.Many teachers still need to implement character values in a subject; 5) Teachers have yet to become role models for character values.There are still many unscrupulous teachers who do not reflect good character.Likewise, problems related to policy changes to strengthen character education every time a new head of state, new minister, and new school leader can affect changes in character education in the education unit.Indonesia alone has experienced several policy changes regarding strengthening character education with 18 standards.Character values, then five years later, five standard character values appeared, and in the last five years, six typical character values for Pancasila student profiles appeared.
The direction for developing national character has three stages: the consolidation stage for developing national character in 2010-2014, the stage for strengthening national character development in 2015-2020, and the development stage for developing national character in 2021-2024.Fundamental national character-building policies, such as 1) Article 3 of Law No. 20 of 2003: The purpose of national education is to cultivate the potential of students so that they may grow into people who believe and fear God Almighty, have a noble character, be healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become a democratic and responsible citizen in the context of educating the life of the nation.Agenda Building national character is the main goal of improving character education in Indonesia.The goal is to teach good character in school, at home, and in the community.In elementary schools, character education focuses on introducing character education (Ciampa & Wolfe, 2021).In junior high schools, character education focuses on building habits to strengthen character education (Amirudin, 2020b).In high schools, character education focuses on putting character education into practice in everyday life (Khadijah et al., 2021).Through environmental factors, character building in elementary schools can be carried out through several strategies, including exemplary intervention, consistent habituation, and strengthening.In other words, character development needs moral behavior, which is passed on, intervention through the process of learning and training, and long-term habituation, which is done over and over and must be balanced with noble values.Article 5 of Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 87 of 2017 on Strengthening Character Education states that character education must be (a) exemplary in its implementation in each educational environment, (b) oriented toward developing the potential of students as a whole and integrated system, and (c) takes place through habituation and all the time in everyday life (Maisaro et al., 2018).Integrating national character education into middle schools strengthens students' individual character, the school's culture, and the community at large.Integrating Character Education into the curriculum, maximizing local material, and improving classroom management are all ways to bolster this form of classroom action-based education.Building a stronger school culture Habituation of values through daily school life, role models, the school environment, rules and regulations, and school traditions are all ways in which Character Education is implemented.Existing partners, including parents, community leaders, religious leaders, corporate actors, academics, activists, educators, artists, humanists, writers, and so on, are essential to the success of Character Education based on community engagement (Hieng, 2021).
In high schools, national character building is done by putting character education values into all courses, including local ones, based on their characteristics.In the lesson plans, the value of character education is emphasized.Meanwhile, in self-development, character education is implemented in counseling and extracurricular guidance programs.Extracurricular programs are carried out through several activities such as scouting, Student Health Unit and Youth Red Cross, achievement sports, spirituality, cultural arts/art workshops, and leadership.Character education is also done through routine, spontaneous, and exemplary habituation.In detail, the activities of developing national character (Sumiyati, 2011) namely: 1) Routine Habits, namely scheduled activities, including a flag ceremony, gymnastics, group prayer, order, maintenance of cleanliness (Clean Friday), and personal health, 2) Spontaneous Habits, namely unscheduled activities in special events, including forming the behavior of giving smiles, greetings, greetings, throwing garbage in its place, queuing culture, overcoming disagreements (quarrels), reminding each other when they see violations of school rules, home visits, social solidarity, 3) Exemplary habits, in the form of daily behavior, include: dressing neatly, speaking well, reading diligently, praising the goodness and success of others, arriving on time.
Directions and priorities of national character development in Indonesia can make a positive contribution to scientific development in normative and legal studies of national character development by giving information about the direction and priorities of national character development on a regular basis, so that the development of national character in Indonesia is directed and on target for shaping the surface of generations of gold in the 21st century.This study aims to analyze the implementation of national character building and find out the direction, goals, and priorities of national character development.

Research Method
This study used the systematic literature review method with a qualitative approach.This research is a literature review of documents from journals, proceedings, theses, and theses with source data already gathered and grouped according to the direction of national character development in Indonesia.Scattered data was taken from fifteen reputable national journals (indexed SINTA) articles and ten reputable international journals (indexed SCOPUS) articles as a sample with data collection criteria from public and private schools implementing federal character building.The amount of field data collected is substantial.Thus, it is important to document it accurately and thoroughly (data reduction).After that, qualitative tabulation (data display) was used for the data collection method.The data analysis technique used in this research was thematic analysis.Thematic analysis is one way to analyze data to identify patterns and find themes through the data collected by researchers of character education in Indonesia's public and private schools was performed using data analysis methodologies, and a conclusion was drawn (Miles & Huberman & Saldana, 2014).

Results and Discussion
This study looked at the direction and importance of character education in several schools in Indonesia.It found that the building of the character of the country was the main goal.Based on a study from the Ministry of Education and Culture's Center for Policy Analysis and Synchronization (Hujaemah et al., 2018) explained that building the nation's character could be done by improving character education in the classroom, school culturebased character education and character education in the community.Strengthening character education in class with daily habituation methods can be done by checking class cleanliness every day, reading the holy book before studying, and singing the national anthem before going home from school.Parents and school committees help strengthen community-based character education by showing participants how much they care about their surroundings.Likewise, Albertus (2015) strengthening community-based character education involves parents and school committees to realize participants' concern for their environment.First, bolstering classroom-based character education involves improving classroom management, methodological choices, and teaching evaluation, as well as creating local content tailored to a given region's specific needs.Second, to strengthen school culture-based character education, it is important to highlight the exemplary adults in the school's educational environment, involve the entire school's educational ecosystem, and create a welcoming environment for all students.

Direction and Target of National Character Development
The goal of developing national character is to reach the vision of national development outlined in the 2010-2025 Long-Term Development Plan and the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 17 of 2007.This type of character is seen in the nature and behavior of an Indonesian society that is pluralistic, has faith, and fears God Almighty (RI, 2010); (Nurdin, 2015); (Komara, 2017).Article 3 of the Law on the National Education System No. 20 of 2003 says that national education aims to build skills and shape the character and culture of a dignified country to make intelligent people.A government wants to teach students how to become good people who believe in and fear God, have good character and are healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, and independent citizens of a democratic and responsible country (Yudi Hartono, 2018).Two primary legal documents in Indonesia lay the groundwork for national character education: the National Long-Term Development Plan and the Law on the National Education System.The people of Indonesia, especially students in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Schools, Junior High Schools, High Schools, and Universities, are the focus of building national character education.Selfdevelopment activities, instilled character values, and strategies implemented in schools can be described in the following table 1 2020) of ways to improve your character.Extracurricular activities can help kids learn to be honest, care about the world, and help others.Extracurricular activities can also help kids learn to be disciplined (Hidayat et al., 2020); (Setiawati, 2022).
There are signs of national character building in kindergarten, elementary, junior high, and high school.
1) Development of National Character for Kindergarten National character development in kindergarten uses a game approach, singing and telling fairy tales.Indicators of national character development in kindergarten include manners, cleanliness, discipline, religion, and independence (Sumiyati, 2011).This form of character cultivation is carried out by habituation, planting in daily activities, and good cooperation with parents, schools, and the community.In the application of the Habituation Method, religious character education activities include: reading the IQRA in the morning before entering class; before learning to read the prayer; reading the blessings of Bani Hasyim; after learning to read the prayer (Hasanah & Munastiwi, 2019).Additionally, character education is accomplished through routine, spontaneous, and exemplary habituation (Sumiyati, 2011).

Stages and Priorities of National Character Development
`To reach the goal of national education, which is to help students grow into people who believe in and fear God, have good character, are healthy, smart, capable, creative, and independent, and become citizens of a democratic and responsible state, steps and scales are needed.Priority of the country's effort to teach good character.Preparation of long-term and medium-term pacing and priority scales based on the National Character Development Master Design for 2010-2025 (Indonesia, 2010).The following table describes the stages and priorities for developing national character: During the 2015-2019 time period, there is a plan for strengthening students, teachers, and education staff who have high morals and the skills to show the noble values of the country's culture in daily life.Students' character is built on a national level in school, especially in elementary, middle, and high schools.This is because schools are the center of character education and education for families and communities.The priority of this era is to strengthen the nation's character by implementing 18 values of character education in the classroom, intra-curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities, school culture, and community culture, and exemplary; these efforts are to make better students.Findings that the development of national character in schools has its policies, especially the method of application in the classroom, the problems experienced by students, the involvement of stakeholders, and the provision of facilities as an effort to cultivate the character of the Pancasila ideology (Amirudin, 2020b).Local governments' goals are translated into action by bolstering character education in schools through a variety of means (Tabroni, Nasihah, et al., 2021).
The 2020 -2025 period has a program plan, namely strengthening the inauguration of the Pancasila ideology-based curriculum, which is integrated into each subject group holistically and increasing the national resilience of the Indonesian nation by fostering a spirit of unity and oneness, tolerance among religious adherents, between ethnic groups, between races, between traditions, and uphold gender equality or gender mainstreaming.The priority for developing national character in this period was to instill the 5 Standard Characters: religiosity, nationalism, independence, mutual cooperation, and integrity.The five characters have changed their names to become Pancasila student profile characters.Even so, the 18 Character values and the 5 Character values remain the backbone of character education.The Pancasila student profile is the primary focus of educational developers; the Ministerial Regulation No. 20 of 2020 on the Education and Culture Strategic Plan for the Years 2020-2024 supports this view (Kusumah & Alawiyah, 2021).Faiz & Faridah (2022) say that the point of the driving teacher program is to give teachers chances to improve their teaching skills with the main value, Pancasila, which is integrated with different topics.Syahril (2020) says that the teacher engagement program, which tries to make Pancasila students into a key system that can change Indonesian education in a new and better way, is a key system that can change Indonesian education.Kemendikbud (2021) and Rachmawati et al. (2022) say that there are six core skills that make up a Pancasila student profile are have faith, respecting God, and be a good person, being independent, using critical thinking, being creative, working together, be aware of the world's differences.

Conclusion
The results of this study conclude that Indonesians develop their national character by getting used to participating in leisure and intra-curricular activities and learning.The direction of building a strong national identity is done in three stages.The consolidation stage focuses on ensuring people understand the Pancasila philosophy, the stabilization stage on various subjects, curriculum and school, family and community participation, and the development stage, increasing the inauguration of the Pancasila ideology-based curriculum.The most important part of building national character is ensuring kids grow up to be good, tolerant, and creative citizens, work together, and have integrity and a global outlook.

Recommendation
The recommendations for policymakers are determining policy standards and objectives, resources, implementation of activities, and the social, economic, and political environment.The recommendations for school principals or teachers are as a guide in providing assistance and encouragement, supervision and coaching, and tasks related to disciplining children so that children become obedient to school rules.The recommendations for parents are as guidelines in shaping children's character by instilling religious education, values, and prevailing norms.
No. 8 of the Nawaacista Movement focuses on bolstering the mental revolution by fostering students' moral and ethical development.Thirdly, Trisakti: Instilling Character and Tradition in Future Generations.4) "Strengthening character education for school-age children at all levels of education to strengthen students' moral values, character, and personality by strengthening character education integrated into subjects," from the National Medium-Term Development Plan for 2015-2019.5) Executive Order No. 87 for 2017 on Enhancing Character Education.Strengthening Character Education in Formal Education Units (Ministerial Regulation No. 20 of 2018) (PUSPEKA, 2023).
2) Development of National Character for Elementary Schools National character development in elementary schools includes being religious, honest, clean and comfortable, disciplined and smiling, greeting, polite, and courteous (5S).Subject competitions, habituation (routine activities through flag ceremonies and collective worship), nationalism activities through the celebration of the Republic of Indonesia's Independence Day, the commemoration of Heroes' Day, the commemoration of national education day, and learning activities outside the classroom and training (outdoor learning & training) through study visits and comparative studies.Then the application of school rules and class rules(Sumiyati, 2011);(Rohman, 2019).3) Development of National Character for Junior High Schools National character development in junior high schools can use coaching, conditioning, and assessment stages.In the coaching stage, students can be fostered through 3 paths (Sumiyati, 2011): The first step is subject-based integration.Values, knowledge of the importance of values, and incorporation of values into students' everyday actions are all components of character education, which can be taught in and out of the classroom.Learning activities are carried out to ensure that pupils acquire the necessary skills and knowledge.Values have begun to be integrated into all subjects, especially developing caring, environmental, healthy, religious, and discipline values.Second, integration through local content.Values are translated into issues, including local content subjects.These values are poured into indicators and learning activities in the syllabus and Learning Implementation Plan.Third, self-development integration is carried out by integrating counseling guidance with extracurricular activities and scheduled implementation practices.In the conditioning stage of implementation, especially providing adequate facilities and infrastructure to support character education.Evaluation stage, success assessment To determine the success rate of implementing character education, the school principal and the team design and carry out supervision, monitoring, and evaluation activities which are equipped with various instruments that can accommodate the values applied at the end of each semester.4) Development of National Character for Senior High Schools In senior high schools, national character building is done by integrating character education principles into all subjects, including those with local content.The learning activities list the importance of character education in the syllabus.Meanwhile, in self-development, character education is implemented in counseling and extracurricular guidance programs.Extracurricular programs are carried out through several activities such as scouting, Student Health Unit and Youth Red Cross, achievement sports, spirituality, cultural arts/art workshops, and leadership.

Table 1 . Strategy for integrating character education in Schools Types of Self- Development
. The character formation program through leadership has a more dominant value of about 18 Character values often applied in schools.Then the extracurricular programs include Scouts, Student Health Unit and Youth Red Cross, Youth Organizations, Sports, Spirituality, Cultural Arts / Arts Workshops, Youth Reproductive Health, Leadership, and School Festivals, which are selected programs students choose according to their interests and talents.The selfdevelopment program is implemented to foster, educate, and instill various students with national character values.It is in line with the explanation by Kurnia et al. (

Table 2 . Priorities and Stages of National Character Development
Monitoring and evaluation phase II • confirmation, consolidation, and cultivation of ethical values in the life of society, nation, and state, Strengthening the establishment of aBased on the table above, the priority of developing national character starting in the 2010-2014 period, with the program plan that is implemented to increase awareness of attitudes and beliefs about the importance of adhering to the values of Pancasila as the philosophy and ideology of the state through a process of learning and formation through school culture.The planting of Pancasila values is made up of 18 national character values: being religious, honest, tolerant, disciplined, hardworking, creative, independent, democratic, curious, national spirit, love for the country, respect for achievement, friendly/communicative, loving peace, loving to read, caring for the environment, caring for social and personal responsibility.These values will be taught in elementary, junior high, and high schools through activities that build character.Those who agreed with the explanation from the Ministry of National Education in 2010 issued a National Action Plan (RAN) for Character Education to build pilots in schools all over Indonesia with eighteen (18) character values.Also, Irianto (2010) explained that moral, value, ethical, and character education is a strategy to strengthen character education.