<![CDATA[Kampuang Galapuang faces a dual, interlocking problem in the post-Covid-19 period: declining active engagement of elementary school students in learning and the fading internalization of practical religious traditions among the younger generation. This community engagement program positions the tungku tigo sajarangan structure (traditional leaders, religious scholars, and intellectuals) as an equal partner within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) framework carried out through four cycles, namely to research, to plan, to take action, and to evaluate, from the problem-mapping stage through outcome evaluation. This formal integration of customary and religious authority into the intervention design is what distinguishes the model from conventional education-focused community programs. Results show an increase in student learning participation from 48% to 73%, basic literacy achievement from 42% to 65%, and basic numeracy achievement from 39% to 61%, alongside improved teacher pedagogical competence through periodic innovative learning workshops. Most of these final outcomes nonetheless fell short of the program’s predetermined targets (participation ≥75%, literacy ≥70%, numeracy ≥68%), representing partial achievement that still calls for continued mentoring. In the religious domain, optimizing surau learning hours and the participatory dawn mentoring (didikan subuh) program raised children’s attendance from 45% to 78%, while strengthening the involvement of traditional and religious leaders in transmitting Minangkabau local wisdom to younger generations. These findings suggest that a bottom-up, custom-institution-based PAR approach contributes to community ownership of change, though this claim cannot yet be statistically compared against a top-down approach in the absence of a comparison group. The program recommends sustained village budget support so that gains in basic education and religious tradition revitalization continue toward the set targets and become an institutional foundation at the village level.]]>
