Students have expressed their lack of interest in the compulsory singing of the national anthem or traditional songs before classes that are currently imposed by the Education and Cultural Ministry.

On Wednesday morning, in the front yard of state senior high school SMAN 70 in South Jakarta, students were rebuked by citizenship education teacher Cecep Sulaiman after they playfully sang the national anthem, Indonesia Raya.

'€œThis is our national anthem. We have to show some respect. Do not sing it playfully. Do not laugh or clap. We will repeat the song! Understand!'€ he yelled.

Cecep was disappointed after only half of the students sang the song wholeheartedly, while others sang it playfully or did not even bother to open their mouth. Some of the students who stood at the back were even busy chatting with their friends.

Rizky Ardani, a 16-year-old student, said that she did not like singing before and after class, as singing it once a week during the flag ceremony was more than enough.

'€œIt is boring. It makes me sleepy,'€ she said, adding that she barely remembered the lyrics of some of the songs.

Rizky said she also questioned that singing the songs would improve her nationalism. '€œFor me, nationalism can be displayed in several ways, such as buying local products or simply living in Indonesia,'€ she said.

She was similarly uninterested in other programs of the ministry, which is obliging students to read books that were not textbooks for 15 minutes. '€œIt will be fine if they give us a chance to read comic books,'€ she said.

In a bid to nurture students'€™ character, Education and Cultural Minister Anies Baswedan last month issued Ministerial Regulation No. 23/2015 that obliged students to sing anthems and read books before they begin studying.

Anies argued that the program was created as schools lacked character-building programs. He said that he even found one school that had not conducted a flag ceremony for four years.

Unlike Rizky, 12th-grade student Virania Syifa said that the program would be good for the students. '€œMany of them forget the lyrics of national songs as we only hear them only during the flag ceremony,'€ she said.

Virania said she also did not mind if they were asked to read books that were not textbooks before classes started. '€œI love reading novels. So it is not a problem for me,'€ she said.

SMAN 70 spokesman Achmad Muchtar said that his school had started the singing program last week, adding that it did not trouble the students.

'€œWe need to force them to sing and read, so they will get used to it,'€ he said.

Achmad said the program was conducted during school hours. '€œThe bell rings at 6:30 a.m. while studies begin at 6:50 a.m.,'€ he said, adding that the remaining time was usually used for various activities like Koran recitals and group exercises.

While the singing program has already begun, the school still needs more time to implement the reading program.

State high school SMAN 6 vice principal for curriculum Husniwati said her school started the singing program on Tuesday. '€œHowever, we still try to squeeze the reading program among study hours, so the students do not need to go home later,'€ she said.

She said the management took the reading time from the Koran recitals, which are conducted every morning, or using one of the break times.

Education Agency head Arie Budhiman said that he had not decided how to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

Arie said singing national songs would be easy but he was concerned with schools that did not have an adequate collection of books.

'€œI hope the Library and Archive Agency can help the school, for example, by providing an electronic library, which is cheaper than providing physical books,'€ he said.

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