Minister must end school bullying, says commission

JAKARTA: The National Commission on the Protection of Children has called on the National Education Ministry to seriously address student bullying at many schools throughout Indonesia.

"This is very worrying," commission chief Seto Mulyadi told tempointeraktif.com in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The commission had sent a letter to National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh to end structural violence in educational institutions.

The government should not just leave this responsibility to provincial offices, Seto said.

Based on the 2002 Law on Child Protection, schools must be violence-free, whether it is violence committed by the school staff or students.

"However, bullying still takes place in schools," Seto said.

Based on the commission's data, there were 98 cases of physical violence, 108 cases of sexual assault and 176 cases of psychological violence inflicted on students in November.

Many bullying cases took place in well known and highly regarded schools, Seto said.

Early last month, a student in State High School 82 in North Jakarta, Ade Fauzan Mahfuzah was beaten by his seniors and had to be hospitalized. - JP