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City to close schools during Asian Games to ease traffic
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Asian Games decorations near Semanggi Overpass in South Jakarta, Oct. 26, 2017. (JP/Seto Wardhana.)
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n a bid to ease traffic congestion in the capital during the 2018 Asian Games, set to be held from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2, the Jakarta administration has decided to close all schools for nine days during weekdays.
“The Jakarta Education Agency is ready to support the Asian Games. Hence, we have decided to close not only several schools in Jakarta, but all of them,” the agency’s head Sopan Adrianto said during an Asian Games preparation meeting on Friday.
Previously, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan considered closing schools near the Asian Games venues — the Gelora Bung Karno sporting Complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, and the velodrome and equestrian center in Rawamangun and Pulo Mas, East Jakarta — to mitigate the expected heavy traffic congestion.
Sopan, however, said that closing only some schools would have been troublesome for the agency, so it was decided that all schools, both state and private, would be closed.
The closure will not, however, impact the students' effective learning hours, as regulated by the Education Ministry, as the education agency planned to cut the student’s holidays in December.
“We shifted the holiday schedule from December [to August],” Sopan said.
