Education bill endorsement sought

Education bill endorsement sought

JAKARTA: A group of students from various Islamic universities
met House of Representatives deputy speaker Muhaimin Iskandar on
Thursday to urge legislators to endorse the contentious national
education bill.

Despite disagreement between Muslim and Christian groups on
certain issues, the students said that the bill respected
pluralism.

Article 13 (1) of the bill obliges schools to provide
religious instruction according to the faith of each student.

The article requires private Christian schools to provide
Muslim teachers for Muslim students enrolled in those schools and
vice versa.

Religious leaders, particularly from Christian groups,
reiterated that religious instruction should be conducted at the
family level without state intervention.

The House's education commission chairman, Taufiqurrahman,
said that each group should not only focus on the religious
issue, adding that the education bill was designed to improve the
competency of students.

He said that all school graduates should meet a national
standard of quality. - JP