THE ROLE OF CHARACTER-BASED SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOPING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT AT SMAK ST FRANSISKUS XAVERIUS, RUTENG

Background

Education is one element that can create the progress of civilization and improvement of the quality of life of a nation. In the organization of education, character formation and life skills are important things to consider. Some facts are related to the low character of learners, especially at the high school level, where learners who are at this age have unstable emotions. This confirms that the character formation of learners is considered as very important. As Hidayat (2012) said in his qualitative research, the character-based school management is the selection of appropriate strategies applied to targeted inputs, processes and outcomes that have high relevance to national education objectives. Character-based education management, more focused on the behavior, character and morals of the management actors with the target is the character of learners, therefore the most important thing is to build human resources. So, based on Hidayat’s qualitative research, the author makes another research that focuses on the real data counting by a quantitative research about how the character-based school management gives impacts in the developing of students’ achievement at SMAK St. Fransiskus Xaverius Ruteng.

The strengthening of moral education or character education in the present context is very relevant to overcome the current moral crisis in our country. The crisis can be the rise of promiscuity, the rise of violence of children and adolescents, crime against friends, theft of teenagers, cheating, abuse of drugs, pornography, and the destruction of other people's property has become a social problem that until now can not be overcome completely.

Character is the values of human behavior associated with God Almighty, self, fellow human beings, environment, and nationality embodied in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and deeds based on norms of religion, culture and nationality values that are actualized in everyday life that becomes an inherent habituation (Gunarto, 2004: 22). Character education has been the concern of many countries in order to prepare quality generations, not just for the individual interests of the citizens, but also for the people as a whole. Character education can be defined as the deliberate us of all dimensions of school life to foster optimal character development. To achieve the expected nation character required individuals who have character values. Therefore, in the effort of building the character of the students needed a serious effort to build the character. Psychologically the individual character is interpreted as a result of the integration of four parts, namely the heart, thought, exercise and taste.

Characters cannot be formed and built in a short time. Building the character of the nation takes a long time and must be done on an ongoing basis. The characters inherent in today's learners do not just happen suddenly, but have gone through a long process. Our country pays great attention to the importance of character education in schools in helping to apply moral values and nationalities. In principle, the value can be developed through the process of education because the quality of truth, goodness, and beauty are abstract themes that are consciously or unconsciously united with one's behavior. When viewed from a psychological point of view, the value-based education is an effort to strengthen the belief of students to do the truth, goodness, and beauty that the success can be estimated from a number of behaviors on the theme of certain values. This kind of awareness requires a genuine and integrated effort. Therefore, the responsibility to form the personality, morals, ethics and character of students is the responsibility of all of us.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to count accurately about how the character-based school management gives impacts in the developing of students’ achievement at SMAK St. Fransiskus Xaverius Ruteng. It also intends to examine whether there is a relatively high correlation between the character-based school management and students’ achievement. By the statements above, the author chooses the title of this scientific writing; that is “The Role of Character-Based School Management in Developing Students Achievement at Smak St Fransiskus Xaverius, Ruteng”.