Sustainable Character Education in Post-Pandemic Covid-19 in Schools

Abstract

Education is essential in every country. One of the priority programs in Indonesia, which is implicitly affirmed in the 2005-2025 National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJPN), is educational character. Thus, to realize it following the nation's culture, the educational character is not only carried out in schools and Islamic boarding schools through a series of teaching and learning activities but also habituation (daily habits) in life. Character is a way of thinking and behaving that represents each individual to live and work together within the scope of family, community, nation, and social life. It is the main basis that education in formal educational institutions is easier to form character because the learning model is more dominant in the learning model through habits. However, with COVID 19, all aspects adapt to the situation. Now, a very urgent to adjust in this situation is to prioritize health and safety by keeping a distance. Of course, it is something new in learning in schools that prioritize face-to-face and togetherness. Thus, a learning process requires a strategy to maintain character building with health and safety considerations. After doing this research, to build a character with considerations of health and safety after the COVID-19 pandemic, several schools at every level of education carried out a queuing culture, a small group learning system, and teacher friend students (GSS) by making home visits while maintaining a distance. By doing so, learning in schools continues to carry out character education with a learning model, which is a process of forming a way of thinking and behaving and becomes a hallmark in personal, family, community, and environmental lives.