MORAL DEGRADATION OF INDONESIAN TEENAGERS

MORAL DEGRADATION OF INDONESIAN TEENAGERS

Indonesia is known not only as a very beautiful country, but also known as a very friendly and moral country. However, student brawls, bullying, corruption cases, robberies, drugs, free sex, sexual harassment, murders, mutilation cases, and so on that are happening today make these assumptions all disappear in an instant. It is undeniable that in life there must be problems. However, this indicates that Indonesian society is currently experiencing symptoms of moral degradation. The moral degradation that has occurred in this nation has hit various lines of society, one of which often occurs in the youth sector. The younger generation certainly has a very important role for a nation. Because it is on his shoulders that the fate of the nation in the future depends. However, in reality the current conditions are many teenagers or the younger generation who are immoral and of course far from the expectations of the founding fathers of this nation.

Degradation means setback, decline or decline in something, while morals are morals or character according to the Big Indonesian Dictionary. If we interpret both, moral degradation is a phenomenon of a decline in the character of a person or group of people. According to Lickona (2013) there are 10 indications of symptoms of a decline in morale that need attention in order to change for the better;

1) Violence and acts of anarchy,

2) Theft,

3) Fraudulent Acts,

4) Ignoring the applicable rules,

5) Brawl between students,

6) Intolerance,

7) Use of bad language,

8) Premature sexual maturity and its deviations,

9} Self-destructive attitude,

10) Drug Abuse.

a study conducted by Reckitt Benckiser Indonesia through the contraceptive brand Durex on 500 adolescents in five major cities in Indonesia found that 33 percent of adolescents had had penetrative sex. From these results, 58 percent penetrated at the age of 18 to 20 years. In addition, the participants in this survey are those who are not married (liputan6.com). Meanwhile, youth victims of drugs reached 1.1 million or 3.9%. The data was taken in 2008, by taking samples from 33 provinces in Indonesia. Data from the DKI Jakarta Center for Social Disorder Control shows that 0.08% of elementary, middle and high school students are involved in brawls or around 1,318 students out of a total of 1,647,835 students in DKI Jakarta. In fact, 26 of them died. The problems of today’s youth do not end there, recently there have been many cases of students fighting their teachers. Some even have the heart to abuse their own teacher to death, as happened in Madura. Of course, this has gone too far, there is no longer respect and ethics embedded in these students.

Of course, there are aspects behind the rampant moral degradation of today’s young generation. There are two important points that are considered to play a role in this matter, namely; family/parents and the environment (both inside and outside the school). The family is considered as the most dominant factor in laying the foundation for moral/moral development, because it is the first madrasah for teenagers. However, in reality, many parents do not understand this role. Parents think that education for their children is sufficient at the school level and that the main concern for parents to their children is only the issue of report cards. When they are good they are praised and when they are bad they are scolded, without asking their children’s understanding of these subjects. Indirectly parents pursue that results are more important than the process. Therefore it is important to build communication between parents and children.

In addition, many parents of students do not fully support teaching in schools. Many parents of students report teachers who give physical sanctions to their children. This makes teachers afraid to give sanctions to students who are guilty, so many students dare to face their teachers. Lack of supervision by parents of children’s associations can also cause a decline in the child’s morale.

The school environment is considered to play an important role in the formation of student morale. School is a secondary educational environment, which systematically carries out guidance, teaching and training in order to help students to be able to develop their potential, both with regard to moral, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and social aspects. Therefore, the role of the school is quite large, plus almost a third of students’ time is spent at school. Most parents also think that the world of education is enough to provide moral content to their children. However, the current condition of the world of education is felt to be not fully capable of forming the morale of its students. Most educators in teaching only fall into obligation to teach. The students are more highlighted in terms of intellectual only and put aside moral education. An example of a case that often occurs is when the national exam (UN) subjects tested are only general subjects, subjects related to moral/moral aspects are ignored. So that students think that the intellectuality / intelligence of students is far more important than the morals of these students. This should be reviewed by policy makers.

Moral degradation in Indonesian youth can be corrected if these two lines carry out their roles properly and with full awareness in terms of educating today’s youth. It would be even better if the two lines could collaborate, work together and support each other for the sake of creating a generation of noble character.