REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Boarding school or locally called pesantren, is a popular system in Islamic education in Indonesia. Nowadays the number of modern Islamic boarding schools keeps increasing and they offer religious and general education in one packcage.

Based on data of Ministry of Religious Affairs (2010-2011), there are 27,218 Islamic boarding school spread across Indonesia. The number of their students -called santris- reaches 3,642,738 people. 

Many Indonesian Muslims who study in Middle East countries then back to Indonesia and apply the teaching style here. According to an Islamic shcolar Abdurrahman Mas'ud, Islamic boarding school style was originally brought to Indonesia by Walisongo -refering to nine ulamas who lived in 15th to 16th century in Java.

"Walisongo integrated religious and secular aspects in teaching Islam to society. Thus, it generated a unique educational institution," the professor in Islamic cultural said.

Boarding school as roots of Islamic education is inherent in Indonesian educational system. The system is considered as an original Indonesian education system. 

Islamic boarding school applies two methods namely sorogan and weton. In sorogan, a student studies by having face to face session with a teacher. While in weton method students study in a group and they are guided by their teacher.  

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