Your comments on the issuance of ministerial decree by Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan, underlining the importance of the ethical (budi pekerti) development/character building of students amid concerns over the lack of ethical comprehension among the nation'€™s youth:

It is with great sadness to read that character development has to be a main goal of education. Education ought to be about the quest for knowledge and the dissemination of truth.

If you want to build character join the army but preferably not the Indonesian army as there are some really bad characters in our military.

Singing is good for kindergarten but it should stay just there, unless you want to train a whole generation to be contestants for various reality shows such as The X-Factor, Indonesia'€™s Got Talent or Idol. Anyway, Indonesia has way too many singers working at traffic lights. Please do not encourage more of them.

Reading is an essential part of education and should be a part of the national curriculum. But 15 minutes of reading before the start of classes is not enough.

Furthermore, if we are serious about improving the ethical conscience of our youth, we should devote a whole hour of school time each day to reading thought provoking novels, not just religious books.

After the reading teachers should lead class discussions, encourage independent thinking and discourage the usual follow-the-herd mentality.

Help students to develop an ability to discern for themselves whether or not something that is being presented to them is true or plausible.

In fact, it should be one of the main ambitions of teachers to encourage students to develop within themselves a desire and an ability to think independently. This is what is lacking in Indonesia.

Abu Abu

Our young learners need ethical development to build up their nationalism. It could be improved by telling local stories.

Ferril Irham Muzaki
Malang

I definitely agree. It would be better if it started in the earliest grades of school such as playgroup or kindergarten.

The finest way of teaching them is by example.

We should emulate Singapore or Japan in how they instill their nation'€™s values into children by taking children to the society around them (traditional markets, malls or crossroads) to learn queues and to help the elderly, for example.

I think it'€™s more practical than memorizing all the values of Pedoman Penghayatan dan Pengamalan Pancasila (The Guidelines of Comprehension and Implementation of Our Nation'€™s Philosophies , P4) like pupils did in the 1990s and 1990s.

Romas
Jakarta

Minister Anies Baswedan'€™s effort to enhance ethical development among the nation'€™s youth has to be applauded.

However, to achieve results it is not enough for pupils to read a standard text every Monday morning.

Ethics should be developed through interactive discussions between teachers and pupils, for which first of all we need ethically minded teachers.

Soebagjo Soetadji
Jakarta
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