The regulation comes as relief for educators across the archipelago who hope it will be a step toward ending religious intolerance and discrimination within the country’s educational institutions.

The joint decree, signed by Home Minister Tito Karnavian, Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas and Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim, lets public school students decide for themselves whether to wear religious attire or not.

“The key point […] is that the right to wear religious attire is the freedom of each individual and shouldn’t be enforced by the school,” Nadiem said on Wednesday. “Therefore, regional administrations or school managements should neither enforce nor ban students of public schools from wearing religious clothing.”

The government ordered public schools and local administrations across the country to revoke any regulations requiring or banning students from wearing religious attire as part of their uniform within 30 days of the issuance of the decree on Wednesday.

However, public schools in Aceh are exempted from the new policy. The province is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to implement Islamic Law.

Nadiem went on to say that the government had prepared punishments for any officials and schools found violating the SKB, including by cutting the school operational assistance (BOS) funds. The Education and Culture Ministry had set up a hotline for people to report such violations.

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