Many schools give students time off

JAKARTA (JP): Many schools in the capital have temporarily closed their doors due to social uncertainty caused by a series of student demonstrations, an official said on Thursday.

"Ten schools, including elementary and junior and senior high schools located mainly in South Jakarta, have given their students time off since Wednesday," Alwi Nurdin, head of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Education and Culture, said.

Alwi said the principals of the schools decided to suspend lessons due to the increasingly tense situation brought about by demonstrations and counter demonstrations against the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly.

Five other schools, including state senior high school SMA 6, SMA 24 and SMA 8, also announced today that they would follow suit for safety's sake, he said.

Alwi made the remarks at a ceremony for the handing over of a donation from an Indonesian student association in Japan to elementary to senior high school students in Greater Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Bali.

Alwi reiterated that all school principals in Jakarta were allowed to give their students time off if they deemed the students' lives could be endangered when traveling to or from school.

He said the ministry had given school principals full authority to make the decision. (ylt)