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EDITORIAL: Five days a week
Many say the one-size-fits-all policy is Jakarta-centric and that the scheme is inappropriate for parts of country where infrastructure is lacking or in poor condition.
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The children always went to school with a bright smile on their faces, notebooks in their backpack (or sometimes a plastic bag) and they were all barefoot. (JP/Dita Nurtjahya)
T
he spectacle of children carrying heavy backpacks, or dragging fully loaded wheel bags, as they march to school in the morning is ubiquitous in Jakarta. Their peers in the rest of this nation will soon bear the same daily burden if the Culture and Education Ministry insists on enforcing the five-day school policy in the new academic year beginning in July.
As a consequence of the policy, students of primary and secondary education nationwide will spend eight hours a day in school, an hour longer than they do under the current sixday school system. Culture and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy said the extra hour would enable schools to instill values such as nationalism and tolerance that would shape a truly Indonesian character among all pupils.
Many have expressed their objection to the minister’s plan, saying that information about it has not been disseminated adequately. Many others say the one-size-fits-all policy is Jakarta-centric and that the scheme is inappropriate for parts of country where infrastructure is lacking or in poor condition.
Among the plan’s staunch opponents is Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organization, which administers hundreds of madrasah or informal, after-school tutorials focusing on Islam. With students leaving schools late in the afternoon, they may no longer have time to study Islam at a madrasah, depriving tutors of their jobs.
The five-day school policy is in fact a national issue that the minister and his aides cannot decide on alone, given the wide-ranging impacts it would have on the country.
In response to the argument raging over the plan’s pros and cons, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo summoned Muhadjir on Wednesday, apparently for clarification concerning the matter. While refusing to disclose the substance of the meeting with the President, Muhadjir promised to improve the draft ministerial regulation on the five-day school week.
As a result, the minister is now required to renegotiate his plan, which means gathering opinions from a wider range of the public, particularly those who will bear the brunt of the policy. As some of his critics have said, he has not done enough to explain the thinking that led him to propose to the five-day school scheme.
Given the fact that Jakarta has implemented the policy for three years, although not all schools comply with it, the minister should take a serious look at the capital city to avoid a repeat of the same mistakes.
Secretary-general of the Federation of Indonesian Teacher Unions (FSGI) Retno Listyarti said a study conducted by the group had found many cases of digestive problems among students who went to schools five days a week with longer hours in class. Many students reportedly skipped breakfast and delayed their lunch to adapt to the policy.
More importantly, the government should ask the children whether they are happy with the extended school hours in exchange for a longer weekend.
