Effective Strategies for Character Education During the Pandemic

      The spread of the Covid-19 virus has had a major impact on all aspects of life, including education. As a result, teaching and learning activities had to be carried out online. In online learning, character education has become more difficult to carry out because teachers and students do not meet face to face. For this reason, an appropriate strategy is needed so that the instilling of character education can be carried out well. 
     In Indonesia, character education is a very important issue. This is because of the moral crisis among the younger generation. We often see young people behaving in ways that do not conform to social norms. And cases of crime in Indonesia increase every year. Such crimes can of course be minimised by strengthening character education. Therefore, hard efforts are needed to instil and strengthen character education in students. 
      Character education is not only carried out at school; the family and the environment also play an important role in instilling character education, especially during a pandemic like this one, when students spend more time at home. Considering how important character education is for students, character education should be given from early childhood through to adulthood.  
      According to KBBI (the Indonesian Dictionary), education is a process of changing the behaviour and attitudes of a person or group in order to mature human beings through teaching and training. Meanwhile, character is the attitude, morals and good conduct possessed by a person. So, character education is the effort of teaching good attitudes and conduct to a person. A person can be said to have character if they can behave well and politely in daily life, whether in the school environment, the family or society. 
         As stated by the Ministry of Education and Culture (2017), there are five main character values originating from Pancasila that are the priorities for strengthening character education, namely: religious attitude, nationalist attitude, integrity, independence, and mutual cooperation (gotong royong).
       A religious attitude is a character value that embodies faith in God Almighty. Its embodiment in behaviour includes carrying out religious teachings according to one's own beliefs, respecting and appreciating religious differences, always creating harmony in life and creating a sense of peace with people of different religions.
        A nationalist attitude. The form of a nationalist attitude can be seen in appreciating local national culture, preserving the nation's cultural wealth, being willing to sacrifice, achieving, loving the homeland, obeying the law, and respecting cultural diversity.
        An attitude of integrity. The form of integrity character consists of responsibility as a citizen, active involvement in social life, respect for human dignity, and upholding the truth in actions and words.
       An independent attitude. An independent student can be seen from a good work ethic, resilience, high fighting spirit and creativity.
      Gotong royong (mutual cooperation). Behaviour that reflects gotong royong includes, among other things, working together to solve problems that arise, creating communication and a sense of friendship with one another, and helping individuals who need help or assistance. 
     Strengthening character education in the midst of the pandemic requires more effective and innovative strategies so that it can be carried out well. Some strategies that can be applied are as follows. First, through learning strategies. Teachers can bring innovation to learning activities by creating a fun and interesting learning atmosphere. In addition, they can also use media that help make lessons more interesting so that students are active, not bored and enthusiastic about learning. This can lead students to develop an attitude of thinking critically and finding out more deeply about the issues that arise, and to be able to solve problems well. In this way, independence and intelligence can be well instilled in students.
      The second strategy is strengthening cooperation and communication between teachers and parents. During the Covid-19 pandemic, students have spent more time with their parents. For this reason, parents have an important role in guiding and teaching character education to their children during the online learning process. Strengthening character education during the Covid-19 pandemic will go well if there is strong cooperation between teachers and parents. 
     Cooperation between parents and teachers must be optimised to achieve success in education. One form of success in education is strengthening students' character. In addition, good communication between teachers and parents can make it easier to strengthen character education in students. With cooperation and communication, teachers can monitor the strengthening of students' character education through their parents. Parents' involvement in the learning process is expected to strengthen character values during the pandemic.  

Newspaper: Mata Banua 

E-Paper:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lxv1I4fWw1ulXKC1Grnft0gwXKQKEiHM/view?usp=drivesdk