By 8 p.m. he heads back home after a day of studying but still has to stay up to finish his homework. In his free time, he studies via online learning platforms to prepare for important exams.

All of this is done to give himself the best chance at being accepted to a state university.

Naufal is not the only final-year student who endures long study hours — his schoolmates have equally packed schedules.

Spending most of their final year of high school studying, they are all expected to regularly attend afterschool private tutoring and subscribe to online learning platforms. The pressure is high because of the tough competition to get into state universities.  

“There are a lot of competitors. [The universities] we are aiming for are not the easy ones. Students from last year’s batch [from my school] were able to achieve high scores. I often think, ‘Can I do that?’ Moreover, we don’t only focus on our university entry test, but there is also the national examination,” Keisya Adiva Irsyanda told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Keisya said even at the private tutoring agency she signed up for, the pressure to perform was high. The agency conducts routine “tryouts” or test exams in which students can test their abilities. They are called tryouts because, if students do not fare well, they are not allowed to take the next test exam.

“We were asked to redo our tryouts. If we didn’t, we weren’t allowed to take the next one. We also have to approach the tutor and explain to them how we answered the questions,” said Keisya, who is also taking private lessons in math.

Acknowledging how difficult it was to be accepted at a prestigious university was twelfth-grader, Raihan Muhammad Aziz, who told the Post how, among his friends, the conversation on which major to choose was a sensitive one.

“We don’t want to tell each other what major we are planning to take. Either from shame or fear of competition. If our friends know, they might change their minds [on which major to choose]. Some of my friends, knowing that other smart kids are choosing X, decide to opt for a different major,” Raihan explained.

Naufal signed up for two different private tutorship programs, while also taking private English lessons at a separate institution.

Rita, Naufal’s mother, said the will to study came mostly from her child, who was motivated by his own dreams. She simply reminded him of the tough competition he would have to face if he were to choose the major he wanted.

The competition, coupled with the amount of schoolwork today’s children face, is enough to draw attention to the intense culture of academics above all else.

Indonesian Child Protection Agency head Seto Mulyadi tried to bring attention to the issue but came under fire for suggesting that the government cut down on time spent at school from five to six days to only three.

Seto commented how children today were burdened with school activities that focused merely on grades. “[Children] sometimes study from morning until afternoon and still have afterschool lessons and such. Hence, children’s rights are not accommodated in ways that are more humane,” Seto said on Dec. 4 as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.

He argued a lighter academic schedule would allow children to better balance their time, giving them more family time as well as time to explore their interests and talents. Children, he said, would as a result not be “robots” with an obligation to sign up for every lesson available, while ignoring their own unique talents.

However, even with the long hours Indonesian students spend at school, they are still less competitive than their counterparts from other countries. A recent triennial study, the Program for International Student Assessment, run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, showed that Indonesia suffered a decline in all three assessed abilities — mathematics, reading and science — in 2018, with reading experiencing the greatest drop.

Psychologist Ratih Zulhaqqi questioned Seto’s proposal, believing that children required supervision, which he said was not possible for kids whose parents worked all day.

Instead, Ratih emphasized the importance of focusing on cases of children being overwhelmed with schoolwork and the need to better manage workload.

“From the cases that I’ve encountered, there were a lot of anxiety issues, high levels of expectations for oneself [and] even suicide attempts and self-harm. The youngest case of a suicide attempt [I dealt with] was a 9-year-old who was highly anxious when her test score did not align with her target. She got 94, while her target was 98,” Ratih said.

She said a partnership involving children, parents and their schools was sorely needed.

“For teachers, ideally, they have to see each child as an individual. Teachers need to do a mapping of their students’ abilities and adjust their approach based on the child’s needs.” (ydp)

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