PENGABAIAN KONSERVASI TERUMBU KARANG DALAM KURIKULUM SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEJURUAN PARIWISATA DI PANGANDARAN

Abstrak

Consciousness about conservation and environment-friendly activity need to be learned comprehensively in any level of formal education, especially in a vocational high school that related to the tourism industry. One of the potential areas for developing smart tourism is Pangandaran, a popular coast in the south of West Java. This region possesses several vocational high schools with a particular program in tourism studies. Unfortunately, the regional government of Pangandaran has no specific programs to establish adequate curriculum regarding tourism development through the development of its human resources. This research sees the phenomenon by conducting a specific case study on coral reefs conservation in Pangandaran to elaborate on the absence of specific contents about conservation in tourism programs’ curriculum. Applying an exploratory case study developed by Robert K. Yin, this study distributes 37 questionnaires to students of Tunas Brilliant Vocational High School in Pangandaran, along with documentation review about policies made by relevant agencies and stakeholders. The result shows that people in Pangandaran, including those who especially learn tourism studies, have low awareness on the safety of coral reefs as part of environmental conservation. This situation is worsened by the absence of conservation materials in tourism vocational high school’s curriculum that speaks about coral reefs. The lack of understanding in conservation has threatened the sustainability of Pangandaran environment, which in turn will hinder the tourism development in Pangandaran.