The Relationship between Pegon Buton Arabic Script Comprehension and Religious Literacy Interest of Grade VIII MTs Alkhairaat Students in Gorontalo City

Risthyarinanda Dalim; Irpan Ibrahim; Musdelifah Abu Samad

Authors

Risthyarinanda Dalim IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo
Irpan Ibrahim UIN Datokarama Palu
Musdelifah Abu Samad IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo

Keywords:

Arabic Pegon Button script, Religious Literacy, Reading Interest, Local Tradition, Correlation

Abstract

Understanding the Arabic Pegon Buton script is one of the local Islamic literacy skills that is believed to influence students' engagement in reading and comprehending religious texts. This study aims to analyze the relationship between students' understanding of the Arabic Pegon Buton script and their interest in religious literacy among eighth-grade students at MTs Alkhairaat, Gorontalo City. This research employed a quantitative approach with a correlational design involving 60 students selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using Likert-scale questionnaires for both variables and analyzed through descriptive statistics, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov normality test, Pearson correlation, and simple linear regression using SPSS. All instruments were validated by experts, and the research procedures followed ethical standards. The findings show a very strong and significant linear relationship between Pegon script comprehension and religious literacy interest, indicated by a correlation value of r = 0.847 and a determination coefficient of 71.7%. These results conclude that the higher students' mastery of the Pegon script, the greater their tendency to engage in religious literacy activities. This study contributes new empirical evidence regarding the strategic role of Nusantara traditional scripts in strengthening religious literacy motivation within Islamic educational settings.

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