`Education bill needs review'
Sari P. Setiogi and Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) urged on Tuesday the House of Representatives to review the education bill due to its failure to protect human rights.
One human rights violation, Abdul Hakim said, is related to the objective of national education, which emphasizes the cultivation of pious students.
"The education objective doesn't conform to international standards, such as developing respect for human rights, basic freedoms and principles in the United Nations Charter, developing respect for parents, cultural pluralism, languages and children, developing mutual understanding, peace, tolerance and developing respect for the environment." Abdul Hakim said in a press statement released on Tuesday.
The education bill also reduces nondiscriminative principles by stating that every citizen has the right to an excellent education only, he said.
The bill also limits foreign citizens' right to get an education here by requiring further government regulation to implement Article 13 (3).
Abdul Hakim said that although Article 13 (1) ensured students the right to religious instruction, the bill must not oblige students to attend religious lessons that are not on their or their parents' faith.
The article must not burden schools with obligations beyond their authority either, for example by requiring schools to provide religious teachers of the same religion as their students, Abdul Hakim said.
He said the bill could not restrict religious instruction to only a few religions.
The bill recognizes only Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism and Hinduism as official religions in schools.
"It means that the state does not recognize other existing religions," he said, referring to a letter of protest from the Confucianism High Council.
Confucianism or Khonghucu is not accommodated by the education bill even though it was recently recognized as a religion by the state.
"Overall, although the bill attempts to acknowledge several international standards of human rights, the bill falls short of protecting and fulfilling students' education rights," he said.
Many legislators claim the bill ensures human rights and pluralism.
The bill also fails to ensure that higher education is accessible to all and provided progressively free of charge, Abdul Hakim said.
The bill also fails to promote and encourage international cooperation on education, he said.
Meanwhile, a team of House Commission VI on education and religious affairs failed on Tuesday to revise contentious issues in the bill on the first day of its debate, which must be completed by May 19.
The team has been assigned to reformulate nine articles that factions in the commission failed to approve, including the goals of the national education system and an article on religious instruction.