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iving in a geographically challenged province, students in Gorontalo find education not only an intellectual exercise, but frequently a life-threatening experience.

The Indonesian Ombudsman’s representative in Gorontalo has found that a lack of facilities and infrastructure in most parts of the province have hampered the implementation of education programs, including the nationwide trial of full-day schooling.

In Tibawa district, Gorontalo regency, the ombudsman found an elementary school student who had to cross rivers 32 times, going up and down hills to get to school.

“He has to wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning, so he won’t be late,” the assistant to the ombudsman’s Gorontalo representative, Wahiyudin Mamonto, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

In Batudaa, another district in the regency, a student was killed after being hit by a car as he went to join Friday prayers at a nearby village mosque because his school did not provide worship facilities, despite obliging its students to take part in prayers three times a day at the mosque.

Many schools in both districts did not provide sufficient facilities or give special training for teachers.

Some schools in Gorontalo city were even found to be charging parents illegal levies to provide support facilities.

“I don’t need to mention the name of the school but some parents had to buy water dispensers to be placed in their children’s classrooms,” said Wahiyudin.

He believed the full-day school system, which has been piloted in several schools since the beginning of this year, would not succeed, given the constraints in the province.

After the inauguration of Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy last year, the government announced a plan to implement the full-day program that requires students at all levels to stay longer at school, as an effort to curb child delinquency.

Muhadjir said under the plan, the school-hour extension would partly be used for character-building activities. Furthermore, it also purported to guarantee students’ safety until their parents finished work.

He went on to say that the plan did not mean students would spend their entire school day in normal classes, but they would be involved in extracurricular activities to develop their characters and potential.

More than 500 schools at elementary, junior high and high school levels began to implement the program earlier this year.

Gorontalo Education, Youth and Sports Agency head Weni Liputo said he had also received similar complaints from residents.

He said in the province only schools in Gorontalo regency, Gorontalo city, North Gorontalo and Bone Bolango had piloted the program.

Weni said his agency would review the system further during the new 2017-2018 academic year, which will start in July.

“We will revoke the [full-day] system at senior high and senior vocational high schools and return them back to the regular systems,” said Weni, suggesting regency and city education agencies should follow the policy for the schools in their areas.

With regard to the Ombudsman’s findings, Muhadjir said that he had not learned of these problems surrounding the full-day school program. “I would prefer the schools’ names and addresses to be cited explicitly,” he told the Post on Tuesday.

He also said that he would ask the ministry’s inspectorate general to follow up the reports. (mrc)