Five-day week trial for high schools only

JAKARTA (JP): The government has taken one step back in its trial of the five-day school week, which has been given surprising opposition by Moslem organizations. The plan will now be tried only with high schools.

The decision was announced yesterday by leaders of the Muhammadiyah, an influential Moslem organization which runs hundreds of schools, after they met with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.

"The President said if the trial plan is creating unrests and even threatening the existence of afternoon religious schools, then the concept should only be tried at high schools first," Amin Rais, head of the Muhammadiyah executive board, told reporters after the meeting.

Muhammadiyah supports the President's proposal in limiting the trial run of the five-day school week, Amin added.

The five-day school week plan has met with strong resistance, even though it is only a trial run at selected schools in the country. The government had hoped to make a decision in February.

The chief objection to the plan is that many children would be prevented from attending afternoon religious schools if the five- day week plan is enforced, because it means that the curriculum, spread over six days, Monday to Saturday, would have to be crammed into five days. This means children spend more time at school and would not be able to attend the religious schools in the afternoon.

Muhammadiyah has already ordered all its schools not to try the plan.

The shorter school week is being tried at the same time as the government's phasing in of a five-day working week for civil servants, thereby allowing parents to spend more time with their children. The plan however has backfired.

Amin said his organization fully supports the shorter working week for civil servants. "But Muhammadiyah has barred its schools from joining the trial run of the five-day school week because of the social-political implications." (emb)