Fifty teachers killed in Aceh since 1999
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
At least 50 teachers assigned to the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) have been killed in the armed conflict there between 1999 and 2003. Among them, 22 alone were killed by members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), an official said.
The Antara news agency reported that some 170 other teachers were seriously injured or tortured, and even kidnapped by the rebels, according to Anas M. Adam, acting head of the Aceh provincial education office. Some had become invalids, he added, citing the information he received from the regencies. He was speaking on the sidelines of the National Education Day commemoration in Banda Aceh on Sunday.
"Teachers should not become the object of violence," Anas said, "They enlighten the community with knowledge."
The government has yet to decide whether martial law in the province will be lifted on May 19, or whether it will be extended only in certain areas as deemed necessary.
Anas added that the local administration had paid between Rp 1 million (US$120) and Rp 10 million ($1,200) in compensation to each of the teachers' families and teachers who received medical treatment.
Meanwhile, Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh disclosed that the province had received Rp 11.5 billion ($1.3 million) of a total donation of Rp 15 billion from governors all across the country.
The donation would help finance the renovation of dozens of school buildings destroyed in the armed conflict, Abdullah said. To acknowledge the donors, school buildings would be named after the contributing province, Abdullah said.
He added that the funds involved had been distributed to regencies and municipalities in the province. Each regency receives Rp 500 million for renovations. Anas said that by the end of the year, there should no longer be students attending classes in tents and makeshift shelters.
Education officials in Aceh also said they would do their best to ensure that exams for 121,000 students this year would run smoothly. For the conflict area a graduation rate of 75 percent would be quite good, Anas said.
Separately, the head of the Bireuen education office, Ibrahim Ali, said that the Ministry of Education had allocated Rp 2 billion for the rebuilding of 20 school buildings in the regency.
In Jakarta, Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar said that demands to improve the quality of education were mainly based on both the need to keep up with the rapid pace of globalization and the need to adjust to a more "democratic" education system.
Addressing a commemoration of National Education Day on Sunday, he said the problems which urgently required solution were the uneven distribution of education, and the poor quality and flawed management of the education system.
In Surabaya, East Java the education office sought to calm fears that scores of high school students might fail to pass the upcoming exams given the national standards that may be too high in certain areas.
Rasiyo, head of the provincial education agency said that there would be "different versions" of the material. The exams later this month will comprise maths, Indonesian and English.
"For instance the material for East Java and Irian Jaya would be different, and there would be differences within East Java alone," Rasiyo said on Sunday, as quoted by Antara.
The passing grade for the subjects is respectively 4.01 out of 10. Under public pressure the ministry has said that students who failed to pass the minimum grade could have a second chance.