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van Christoper Situmorang, 12, a student at SMP Flora junior high school in Bekasi, West Java, died on Thursday, two weeks after taking part in the school'€™s student orientation week (MOS).

According to the family, the student experienced pain in his legs for around two weeks after going on a 4-kilometer walk on the last day of the orientation program on July 9. On July 30, he experienced convulsions at home and was taken to Citra Harapan Hospital in Bekasi, but did not survive.

While Evan'€™s family has accepted his death, the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry is looking into the case.

The ministry'€™s inspector general, Daryanto, said further investigation was needed to see whether Evan'€™s death was related to activities in the school'€™s orientation.

'€œWe need to see the documents of the MOS and interview the victim'€™s friends separately. We need to gather information from both sides to get objective results,'€ he said on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com.

Daryanto said that for the time being, the ministry could not say whether the school was negligent in its supervision of the students under its care. '€œIt is possible that the student'€™s death was not directly caused by the MOS, but it could have been triggered by it,'€ he said, adding that the school'€™s orientation program had a good track record.

Daryanto admitted that some schools failed to monitor the health of students during orientation.

'€œWe don'€™t know if the student was healthy,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, SMP Flora principal Maria Dagomez confirmed that physical activity was part of her school'€™s student orientation program, but denied allegations the activities were backbreaking for students.

'€œIt was indeed part of our program that aimed at familiarizing new students with the school'€™s surrounding areas. But the trip was not that far as it was only about 2 kilometers,'€ she told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Sunday.

Maria said that her school would immediately follow up on the case along with the ministry.

'€œWe will conduct a thorough evaluation of the program within this week,'€ she said, without elaborating.

Separately, Evan'€™s family said that it had no intention of taking legal measures.

'€œWe don'€™t want to sue the school. But I demand that the school not conduct orientation programs that could harm students,'€œ Ratna Dumiarti, Evan'€™s mother, said as quoted by kompas.com on Sunday.

Jossey Situmorang, Evan'€™s father, said after his son complained about pain in his legs, he took him to a community health center (Puskesmas), where he was diagnosed with a high level of uric acid. However, according to Jossey, his son appeared healthy.

Jossey said his family did not blame their son'€™s death on the school authorities, although he was sure that the school'€™s student orientation program had aggravated Evan'€™s health.

'€œI am not saying that Evan died because of the MOS. However, it triggered Evan'€™s illness, which later led to his death,'€ he said as quoted by kompas.com. (alm)