Between National Universalism and Islamic Particularism: A Discrepancy in Policy Coherence in the Implementation of the Aceh Education Qanun

Abstract

Educational decentralization often aligns national and subnational regulations without changing classroom practice. In Aceh, special autonomy requires schools to deliver education "in an Islamic and integrated manner" under the Aceh Education Qanun (No. 11/2014), alongside Indonesia's National Education System Law (No. 20/2003). Research has stopped at the regulatory level, leaving implementation and its consequences for religious-minority students largely unexamined. This study examined how public senior high schools (SMAN) in Subulussalam City implemented the integration mandate, the roles of school leaders, teachers, and the Regional Education Council (MPD), and what helped or hindered it. Using a qualitative, descriptive-analytical single instrumental case study with embedded units, we interviewed 13 participants at three levels (policy, school, and direct experience), analyzing interviews and documents with the Miles–Huberman interactive model and thematic coding. The two frameworks cohered on paper but not in the general curriculum, where integration remained visible routine rather than curricular redesign. Without technical guidance, schools handled non-Muslim students inconsistently: provision depended on the school attended rather than on a guaranteed right, contrary to the Qanun's own principles of justice and non-discrimination. Officials read the absence of complaints as satisfaction, yet reporting channels were weak and little known, a condition the council itself partly acknowledged. Theoretically, the case specifies when street-level discretion becomes distributive inequality: when needs are identical across schools but technical guidance is absent. Closing the gap requires technical guidelines, not further political commitment. As the minority evidence rests on few informants at one site, the findings are illustrative, not generalizable