'Is it worth sacrificing their future?'

'Is it worth sacrificing their future?'

The city administration has issued an ultimatum to the effect
that the 65 students of the SMP 56 state junior high school in
Melawai, South Jakarta, will lose formal academic recognition
unless they transfer to other designated schools on Wednesday at
the latest. The students of all schools in the city will sit
their final exams from June 21 to June 26. The Jakarta Post asked
some people for their opinions on the protracted dispute over the
controversial land swap deal involving the school.

Razali, 46, is a taxi driver. He lives on Jl. Dewi Sartika,
East Jakarta:

As a parent, I wouldn't like to see my children studying in
the parking lot instead of in the classroom, as has been
happening to the SMP 56 students. I don't understand why the
children's parents and teachers insisted on staying in the school
building, even though it had been sealed. It was the children who
became the victims in the end.

I know from the newspapers that today is the last day for the
students to move to other schools if they don't want to lose
their legal status as students.

I don't know about idealism and education. The thing is, even
if they win, the children's future has been put at stake. And
that should not be allowed to happen.

What they should do is to get more people behind them --
organize a pressure group to face down the city administration
and the councillors who, I think, should be siding with us, the
ordinary people, and not the businesspeople. Just leave the
students alone.

Linda, 29, is a journalist with the Berita Kota daily. The
mother of one child, she lives with her family in Cijantung, East
Jakarta:

I'm very sad to see the students get involved in the dispute.
I'm a mother, too. Their main job is to study -- not to take to
the streets for rallies. I despise those who have involved them
in the dispute, including the people in power who are using the
dispute to further their own interests.

It is common knowledge that our education system is very poor.
You can imagine what will happen to the students if they cannot
even benefit from normal teaching at school. They will have no
future.

--The Jakarta Post