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Backlash mounts as Indonesia mulls 'full-day school' program

Xinhua, August 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Mounting criticisms sparked on Tuesday against the Indonesian government's plan to introduce a program that adds more hours for elementary and junior high school students.

Newly appointed Education and Culture Muhadjir Effendy said on Monday he had proposed a so-called "full-day school" system which is expected to increase monitoring of students and improve their knowledge.

According to him, the program will require public schools to provide additional extracurricular activities or soft-skill classes which will keep students busy until 5 p.m. Most students currently start at 7 a.m. and spend six or seven hours at school.

The proposed scheme still allows students to get two days off per week, he noted.

"The program will see students continuously under responsible monitoring as they leave school when their parents finish work and are ready to pick them up," Muhadjir said.

Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) on Tuesday slammed the plan citing its negative effects to the students' daily social development process as not every child is being raised by working parents.

"Planning a nationwide educational policy cannot be based on personal experience, and should not be partial," the commission's chairman Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh said in a statement.

Asrorun also said that the proposed system would put more burden on teachers and on the schools' expenditures.

Maman Imanulhaq, a legislator at the House of Representatives' commission overseeing social affairs, said separately that the minister had only considered the situations in big cities.

"There are still many schools in small areas that are way underdeveloped and unsafe for students," he says.

Ferdiansyah, a lawmaker at the House's commission which oversees educational affairs, called on the minister to carry out a comprehensive research on the system, especially on the ways to compensate any consequences that may affect the children.

"We must not force all schools to implement it," Ferdiansyah says.

Minister Muhadhir said he is starting a pilot project to test the market as he had received approval from President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, but he had not yet determined where the pilot project will be implemented first. Endit