School holiday 'to go ahead'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin
\ninsisted on Thursday that the planned 38-day school holiday
\nlasting from December to the second week of January would proceed
\nas planned in a bid to train students to be tolerant and practice
\ntheir religion.<\/p>\n
\"I believed that the students, in this case Muslim students,
\nhave to take advantage of the holiday to fully comprehend their
\nreligious teachings and have better interaction with their
\nparents,\" Yahya said.<\/p>\n
\"This also goes for non-Muslim students as they can learn to
\nbe tolerant toward their fellow Muslim students,\" he said during
\nthe opening of a national meeting between his ministry and the
\nMinistry of Religious Affairs.<\/p>\n
The meeting focused on student activities during the month of
\nRamadhan, the minimum quality of education and the academic
\ncalendar.<\/p>\n
The ministry recently unveiled an academic calender which
\nsuspends formal academic activities from Dec. 1 to Jan. 6. The
\nholiday is in conjunction with the month-long Ramadhan fasting
\nmonth, Christmas, Idul Fitri and New Year's holidays.<\/p>\n
But critics have contended that the ministry is merely bowing
\nto pressure from Islamic parties and that there is no need to
\ndisrupt academic activities by giving such a long holiday.<\/p>\n
Yahya dismissed these allegations on Thursday, contending that
\nin previous years when students did not have a long vacation the
\nquality of human resources was still just as low. Thus, he
\ncontended, the extended holiday made no difference.<\/p>\n
\"There is no correlation between giving a month's holiday with
\nthe drop in learning hours\".<\/p>\n
He also dismissed claims that there were political motives
\nbehind the policy.<\/p>\n
\"There are parents who are too lazy to take care of their
\nchildren during the fasting month because they don't know how to
\nfill the holiday time with positive activities ... So there's
\nnothing political about it,\" he said in response to the claim.<\/p>\n
Separately, the head of the Jakarta office of the education
\nministry, Alwi Nurdin, said that even with the long holiday there
\nwas still between 245 and 250 effective school days.<\/p>\n
\"As long as the school days are not less than required, there
\nis no problem,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Private schools, he added, could conduct extra curricular
\nactivities during the period if they so wished. (edt\/lup)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/school-holiday-to-go-ahead-1447893297",
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