Focus on education not religion, say protesters

Focus on education not religion, say protesters

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

About 2,000 teachers from Concerned People for National Education
(MPPN) rallied outside the House of Representatives on Tuesday to
urge legislators debating the education bill to focus on
improving the education system, not religion.

"Education laws should support the national mission, which is
to educate people as stipulated in the preamble of the 1945
Constitution," said protester B.N. Marbun, a former member of the
National Commission on Human Rights. "But instead, the bill
focuses more on faiths."

MPPN spokesperson FX Harbelubun said religion was a private
matter, which the state should not interfere with.

A bone of contention is Article 13 of the bill, which
stipulates that religious classes must be taught by teachers with
the same faith as the students. The article would mean Christian
schools with some Muslim students would have to provide Muslim
teachers for religious studies.

The bill, scheduled to be passed on May 2, has sparked
protests from organizations such as the National Catholic
Education Council, the Christian Education Council and the Plural
Society Group.

House Speaker Akbar Tanjung welcomed the protesters -- mostly
from Catholic and Christian education institutions -- in front of
the House. He told them the schedule for passing the bill was
flexible.

Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar concurred,
telling The Jakarta Post that, "I think the schedule is flexible
and we are still accepting submissions from the public. But I
think the bill has included input from the public."

The working committee is scheduled to convene to discuss the
bill on March 20.

Working committee head Anwar Arifin told the Post that it
would focus on synchronizing the draft bill formulated by the
House and the response from the government. "But we will also
discuss the recent protests."

Meanwhile, Mochtar Buchori, an education expert who is also a
member of House Commission VI for education, told the Post that
the national education system should focus more on education
rather than strengthening beliefs.

"Families should be the first institutions that forge
children's faiths," he said. "However, at present, formal schools
give religious lessons that do not touch on the essence of
beliefs."

He said schools should give students the opportunity to learn
values in every lesson.

"What is happening now in the education system is the
accumulation of meaningless knowledge," he said. "And the
education bill will not improve the system."