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essica Prasetyo was born a Buddhist, but the 15-year-old high school student has recently made up her mind to soon convert to Catholicism after 10 years of having no guru to comprehensively learn about Buddhism.

“I went to a Catholic elementary and junior high school, so I understand Christianity better than Buddhism. Now at my senior high school, there is no religion teacher for Buddhism or Hinduism,” said the student of a state high school in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

“Buddhist and Hindu students usually just sit outside the classroom during religion class. I do not know how they learn about their religion, because I have chosen to join Christianity class,” she said, adding that the school only had one Hindu student and two Buddhist students, including her.

Jessica said she wanted to have a religion, and found it important to understand Buddhist teachings and the meaning behind the belief’s practices, but she had no one to teach her about the aspects of the religion.

“Mama and Papa perform Buddhist rituals at home, but they do not have enough understanding of its teachings. I want to understand Buddhism beyond practices,” said Jessica, who once decided to learn about Buddhism from the Internet. “I hope there will be teachers for minority religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, in state schools so that no one will feel lost about their beliefs like I did.”

Students embracing minority religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism are striving to get their right to religious education in their own religion.

Jakarta Education Agency deputy head Bowo Irianto said schools in the city generally did not provide religion teachers from those three religions for efficiency reasons, considering that few students hold those beliefs.

For instance, there are over 2,000 Hindu students. Only three state schools provide them with religious teachers, Bowo said.

The Education and Culture Ministry has recorded 36,959 Buddhist students and 318 who believe in Confucianism at the various educational institutions in Jakarta.

“Students from the three religions do not always stay at the same school. When the students graduate, and there are no more students [of minority religions] at the school, then the teachers cannot be there,” he said on Monday.

According to Bowo, students of minority religions have the right to learn about their religion at their respective houses of worship around the city.

“Hindu students who do not study religion at school, can study it at the temple instead. The teachers will teach them theory along with practice and tests. They will give their score on the subject on the students’ report,” he said, adding that it also applied for Buddhist and Confucianist students.

The 2003 National Education System Law stipulates that every student must be taught by a teacher from the same religion. However, the law does not stipulate if it is obligatory for every school to provide teachers for all six religions: Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.

City officials should not focus only on efficiency when it comes to granting students’ rights concerning their religion, said Eric Fernardo from the Jakarta Buddhist University Student Association.

“If we are talking about business, it is acceptable to think about efficiency and so on, but we are talking about an education institution, which has to respect the rights of each student to learn about their religion,” said Eric.

He said most Buddhist students in state schools were required to attend sessions at their house of worship every week and get their religious leader to sign a form. This form was then used to give marks for religion class. (yon)