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The Implementation of Full-day School
to Build Character Education
Irmawanty
1
, Farah Pangestu Khoeruman
1
,Sarfa Wassauha
1
, Mohamad Syarif Sumantri
1
,
Arita Marini
1
1
Elementary Education, Postgraduate of Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Rawamangun, East Jakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: full-day school; character education; elementary student
Abstract: The application of full-day school is an alternative solution of the educational revolution for the problems
that occur in education especially on character building. Full-day school is a term of the learning process
where more children's learning activities are carried out at school than at home. The teaching and learning
process applied in the morning until the afternoon. The concept of full-day school aims to use time by doing
useful things. In the additional hours, students could do extracurricular activities, such as sports, art and
religious activities to engage them in positive learning environments. While forming attitude is the purpose
of a learning process for an elementary student now.
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the crucial problems in the national
education system is the moral problem. There is
evidence that indicates a moral crisis among
students. This shows that educational institutions fail
to prepare graduates with good morality (
Ghufron:
2010). The moral degradation that occurs
continuously in the next generation of the nation has
shown that education in schools regarding character
building as expected does not become successful
yet. Whereas, as we know, education is not only a
medium of transferring knowledge but also acts as a
medium of civilizing and channeling values to
students to build the expected character. This
statement was stated in the National Education
System Law No. 20 of 2003 which explains that the
implementation of education, in essence, is not
solely providing students with various sciences to be
smart, but also must provide provisions so that
students can live their lives well with faith, piety and
noble character.
Therefore, if this problem is not taken seriously,
it will worsen the nation's future. The Indonesian
government also promotes character education
which is a mental revolution movement by
implementing a full-day school policy, where all the
programs and activities of students in schools, both
learning, playing, worshipping are packaged in
academic nuances — the need to optimize the role of
schools in full-day school in making learning more
effective, so that there will be more time with family
when on holiday. Especially at the Primary School
level, students get 80% character education and 20%
knowledge.
The full-day school concept stated by the
government is stated in Permen No.23 of 2017
where learning and teaching activities in the school
will last for eight hours a day and five times a week.
Learning starts from 07.00 until 16.00. However, the
teaching and learning process is only carried out
until 12.00, and the rest is used for student character
building activities including fun extracurricular
activities and forming character, personality, and
encouraging students' potential.
Although in reality, the full-day school that is
widely applied today is not completely new and
familiar, because the application of full-day school
has been held by many private schools in cities and
overseas schools such as Europe and America. Even
for some schools in Indonesia, the application is not
only a full-day but overnight or all-day school,
namely the learning system applied by Pesantren or
boarding school. In the Pesantren learning system,
students are required to attend learning programs
from waking up to going to sleep again to learn
general knowledge and religious learning. This
128
Irmawanty, ., Khoeruman, F., Wassauha, S., Sumantri, M. and Marini, A.
The Implementation of Full-day School to Build Character Education.
DOI: 10.5220/0009017700002297
In Proceedings of the Borneo International Conference on Education and Social Sciences (BICESS 2018), pages 128-132
ISBN: 978-989-758-470-1
Copyright
c
 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

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Pesantren learning program has long been applied
since the first boarding school was present in
Indonesia.
But in the implementation of the full-day school
system that already exists this time, basically has the
same core curriculum as the general schools, only in
those schools are certain advantages added such as
in the fields of sports, art, technology or religion.
Thus, a school with a full-day school system has the
same curriculum as the existing school; it's just that
there is an additional school curriculum, which in
addition to that students are expected to be better at
achieving their learning material both regarding
academic and non-academic material.
Many factors must be considered in
implementing a full-day school system such as
culture, economy, educational facilities and
infrastructure, school readiness, school management
and readiness of teachers and education staff. Full-
day labels should not be limited to the name only but
proven by the educational process managed
according to the objectives and mandate of the law.
Because of that, the formulation of the problem this
time will also discuss about how does the full-day
school implicate to character education?
2 FULL-DAY SCHOOL
By Permendikbud No.23 of 2017, in article 2 states
that in full-day school, school days are carried out 8
hours in one day or 40 hours for five days in one
week. These provisions include rest periods of 0.5
(half an hours) in one day or 2.5 hours for five days
in one week. If additional breaks are required, the
school can increase the rest period to more than 0.5
hours. The addition of rest periods is not included in
the calculation of hours as referred to 8 hours in one
day.
Then in article 3 it is stated; School Day is used
by teachers to carry out the workload of the teacher.
The teacher's workload includes: planning to learn or
mentoring; carry out learning or guidance; assess the
results of learning or mentoring; guide and train
students; and carry out additional tasks attached to
the implementation of the main activities by the
workload of the teacher.
In Article 5 it is stated, School days are used for
students to carry out intra-curricular, co-curricular,
and extracurricular activities. Intra-curricular
activities are activities carried out to fulfil
curriculum. Co-curricular activities are activities
carried out to strengthen or deepen basic
competencies or indicators on subjects or fields by
the curriculum.
Furthermore, Article 6 states that co-curricular
and extracurricular activities can be carried out in
schools and outside schools. The implementation of
co-curricular and extracurricular activities both in
schools and outside schools can be done through
cooperation between schools, schools with religious
institutions, and schools with other related
institutions.
Article 9 states the five-day school policy in one
week and 8 hours of study in one day or 40 hours of
study in a week, for the 2017/2018 school year it is
not applied to schools that have insufficient resources
and unreached transportation access. The
implementation of the provisions of the school day
can be carried out gradually.
Overall, the understanding of full-day school is
school all day from morning to evening. The addition
of time is not an effort to increase the subject matter,
but to improve the achievement of educational and
learning goals so that students can explore a subject
with a proportional time allotment for a full day
through character education activities such as;
extracurricular sports, arts, technology, religion, or
enrichment for the deepening of subject matter.
3 CHARACTER EDUCATION
A character is the absolute answer to creating a
better life in society. A character is the values of
human behavior that are related to God Almighty,
oneself, fellow human beings, environment, and
nationality manifested in thoughts, attitudes,
feelings, words, and actions based on religious
norms, law, etiquette, culture, and customs.
According to Ryan and Bohlin (1999) character
is a pattern of one's behavior. People who have good
character have an understanding of goodness, like
goodness, and do goodness. People whose behavior
is in accordance with moral rules are called noble
characters
Character education is the intentional effort to
develop in young people core ethical and
performance values that are widely affirmed across
all cultures. To be effective, character education
must include all stakeholders in a school community
and must permeate school climate and curriculum.
Character education includes a broad range of
concepts such as positive school culture, moral
education, just communities, caring school
communities, social-emotional learning, positive
youth development, civic education, and service
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learning. All of these approaches promote the
intellectual, social, emotional, and ethical
development of young people and share a
commitment to help young people become
responsible, caring, and contributing citizens.
Character education so conceived helps students
to develop important human qualities such as justice,
diligence, compassion, respect, and courage, and to
understand why it is important to live by them.
Quality character education creates an integrated
culture of character that supports and challenges
students and adults to strive for excellence.
(Principles of character education, character.org )
Character education is a system of planting
character values to school citizens which includes
the components of knowledge, awareness or
willingness, and actions to implement these values,
both to God Almighty, oneself, others, environment,
and nationality to become human completely. In
character education in schools, all components
(stakeholders) must be involved, including the
components of education itself, namely curriculum
content, learning and assessment processes, quality
of relationships, handling or management of
subjects, school management, implementation of co-
curricular activities or activities, empowerment of
facilities, infrastructure, and, financing, and, work
ethics of all residents and the school environment.
There are few obstacles in character building
informal education in schools. This is because our
education still focuses more on the development of
purely cognitive intellectuals, while the soft skill or
non-academic aspects as the main elements of
character education have not been considered
optimally even if they are said to tend to be ignored.
Character education can be defined via
relationship virtues (e.g., respect, fairness, civility,
tolerance) or performance virtues (e.g., diligence,
self-discipline, effort, perseverance) or a
combination of the two (anonymous reviewer
comment). Over the past five years some evidence
of the relationship between character education and
academic learning has begun to emerge. An
effective model of character education is one
implementing a comprehensive approach integrated
into subject matters, using multi-methods i.e.
inculcation, modeling, value facilitation, and soft
skills development, accompanied by the
development of a positive school culture; the school
principal and staff members, teachers, and parents
should be involved in the practice of character
education; and the activities should be conducted in
class, out of class, and at home (
Zuchdi, et.al.:2010).
4 METHOD
This study aims to address the research question,
“How does the full-day school implicate to
character education?” This study employed a
descriptive qualitative research design using
literature review as the data collection method.
The researchers firstly collected some relevant
government documents and related papers. The
information about full-day school and character
education was compared and elaborated to better
present the discussion section. Furthermore,
observation was conducted to strengthen the
discussion.
5 FULL-DAY SCHOOL AS A
MEANS OF CHARACTER
EDUCATION IN
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Full-day school is one of the great works of thinkers
and education to anticipate a minimum of parents for
children outside of formal school hours. The first
formal school 5 to 6 hours changes to 8 hours to 9
hours, however, educational problems does not
mean finished there, new problems arise that need to
be learned (input) to be individuals (output) who
have qualified mental, intellectual and skill maturity
(
Siregar: 2017).
Schools committed to character development
look at themselves through a character lens to assess
how virtually everything that goes on in school
affects the character of students. A comprehensive
approach uses all aspects of schooling as
opportunities for character development. This
includes the formal academic curriculum and
extracurricular activities, as well as what is
sometimes called the hidden or informal curriculum
(e.g., how school procedures reflect core values,
how adults model good character, how the
instructional process respects students, how student
diversity is addressed, and how the discipline policy
encourages student reflection and growth).
“Stand-alone” character education programs can
be useful first steps or helpful elements of a
comprehensive effort but are not an adequate
substitute for a holistic approach that integrates
character development into every aspect of school
life. With an intentional and proactive approach,
school staff do more than react to “teachable
moments” to integrate character lessons. They take
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deliberate steps to create opportunities for character
development.
About the implementation of full-day school at
the Elementary School level, the program of
activities must be carried out with due regard to the
condition and development of elementary school age
students, for which the teacher must know the true
characteristics and characteristics of his students.
According to Sumantri (2012), characteristics of
age students' Elementary schools, which are happy
to play, always move, play or work in groups, and
always want to carry out and feel themselves.
Schools and teachers must know the
development that occurs in their student's both
physical, mental, spiritual, and intellectual
development, because it is the main capital in
fostering children. So that it can give birth to various
types of activities and activities that fit the vision
and mission and the objectives of each school with a
variety of activities that exist so that full-day school
can increase the intellectual potential and abilities of
students according to the needs and expectations of
parents and society and can form strong characters
able to compete and be resilient to face changes
according to the times.
Also, learning patterns on a full-day school
system can be carried out with relatively limited
facilities and infrastructure because the thing that is
needed is the level of commitment and sincerity of
managers in realizing a full-day school system. This
does not mean that infrastructure and facilities are
not important. The existence of infrastructure and
facilities is very decisive for the effectiveness and
efficiency of the learning process.
Full-day school systems require at least the
following components (devices): a) software (soft
were). The software needed in full-day school
implementation includes the commitment and
sincerity of managers that are embodied
inconsistently enforced rules and consistent and
precise application of sanctions; b) hardware (hard
were). The hardware needed in the Full-day school
system is the existence of a facility that is very
possible to apply the supervision of student
commitment to student activities directed by the
mission of the educational institution concerned.
6 THE EXCELLENCE OF THE
FULL-DAY SCHOOL SYSTEM
Full-day school as an innovative concept that was
born out of the concerns of a conventional schooling
system has some advantages. First, full-day school
system is more likely to realize education in its
entirety; where the target of education includes three
fields, namely cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor. In conventional educational
institutions, they are often disappointed because they
are only able to form cognitive aspects but are very
weak and even nil regarding affective and
psychomotor. Through the full-day school system,
the tendency towards strengthening on the cognitive
side alone can be avoided, in the sense that the
affective and psychomotor aspects of students can be
more directed.
Second, students will rarely use mobile phones.
A little time intensity for students to interact with
their colleagues on social media is what will reduce
the frequency of the possibility of being exposed to
or being the perpetrator of cyber bullying. In
addition, the role of school teachers in shaping the
character of good students who have not been
affected by cyber bullying conflicts. The class
teacher will provide character education outside the
hours of compulsory subjects as a form of
optimizing the role of the teacher in its efforts to
shape the personality of students.
Third, the full-day school system is more likely
to realize the intensification and effectiveness of the
process of educating students more easily directed
and formed by the mission and orientation of the
institution concerned, because the activities of
students are easier to monitor because they have
been directed from the start. Therefore, a full-day
school system is a pattern that has proven effective
in applying the character of its students.
7 WEAKNESSES OF THE FULL-
DAY SCHOOL SYSTEM
Nevertheless, the full-day school model learning
system is inseparable from weaknesses and
shortcomings. First, a full-day school system often
creates boredom in students. Moreover, elementary
school students tend to be easily bored. They need
other means to release the boredom that might be
obtained through the environment outside of school,
such as friends at home or family. A full-day school
learning system requires good physical,
psychological, and intellectual readiness. The
schedule of solid learning activities and the
application of consistent sanctions, within certain
limits will cause students to become saturated.
However, for those who are ready, this is not a
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problem, but precisely it will bring its own
preoccupation. Therefore, foresight and
improvisation of managers, in this case, is very
necessary. The expertise in designing a full-day
school so that it is not boring and even exciting is
very important. Likewise, cooperation with all
parties, namely Education experts, psychologists,
and other experts really need to be realized.
Second, full-day school system requires
attention and seriousness of management for
managers. For the learning process at a full-day
school patterned institution to take place optimally,
more attention and outpouring of thought is needed
from the manager, even physical, psychological,
material, and other sacrifices. Managing full-day
school requires managerial neatness and conceptual
acumen, which is how so that on one educated side it
feels good to learn, discipline, and feel at home in
the midst of firmness and tight sanctions and the
density of the educational process. Without this, full-
day school will not achieve optimal results and may
even be a meaningless routine.
8 CONCLUSION
The goal of character education is achieved as
expected; it requires an institution that is deemed
able to implement it effectively. One institution that
is considered effective in the implementation of
character education is school. Therefore, Ministry of
Education and Culture as one of the ministries
responsible for education initiated the concept of
full-day school as a forum for the implementation of
character education. Full-day school is an alternative
learning system model, which applies a learning
process that takes place actively, creatively and
constructively, lasts for a full day.
REFERENCES
A. Ghufron. 2010. “Integrasi Nilai-nilai Karakter Bangsa
Pada Kegiatan Pembelajaran,” Cakrawala
Pendidikan, 3: 13-24.
D. Zuchdi, K. P. Zuhdan, and M. S. Masruri. 2010.
“Pengembangan Model Pendidikan Karakter
Terintegrasi Dalam Pembelajaran Bidang Studi di
Sekolah Dasar,” Cakrawala Pendidikan, 3: 1-12.
K. Ryan and K. E. Bohlin. 1999. Building Character in
Schools: Practical Ways to Bring Moral Instruction to
Life. San Francisco: Jossey bass.
L. Y. S. Siregar. 2017. Full Day School Sebagai
Penguatan Pendidikan Karakter (Perspektif Psikologi
Pendidikan Islam),” Jurnal Pendidikan dan
Manajemen Islam, 5(1): 306-319.
M. Sumantri. 2012. Perkembangan Peserta Didik.
Tangerang Selatan: Universitas Terbuka
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