New team set up to discuss controversial education bill

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Members of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission VI for education accepted on Monday the education bill deliberated by a special House committee, paving the way for its endorsement next week.

However, they have yet to resolve nine contentious points in the controversial bill, including Article 13 on religious lessons in schools. They agreed to convene on May 19 to resolve the pending issues and formally accept the bill.

Once approved by the commission, the bill will be submitted to the House's plenary meeting before President Megawati Soekarnoputri endorses it into law. Lawmakers had planned to approve the bill on May 20, which is National Awakening Day.

All factions but the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said on Monday that they would approve the bill, which has divided the public at large.

PDI Perjuangan, which is headed by President Megawati, called on the government not to rush in passing the bill into law.

"We all accept the report of the working committee of the education bill, except the nine articles that have flaws," Taufikurrahman Saleh, the chairman of the House's Commission VI, said during a hearing with the government on Monday.

He said Commission VI would set up a formulation team to discuss the bill's contentious issues until May 19 and to allow the House to approve the bill on May 20.

"If the House doesn't agree to May 20 being the date to approve the bill, we hope our commission will approve the bill on that day," Taufikurrahman said.

The bill, which was drafted by the House, has drawn mixed reactions from the public, with Christian schools opposing it and Muslim schools endorsing the draft.

The bill's article 13 (1) requires all schools, regardless of their religious affiliation, to provide religious instruction to all students. Religious lessons, the bill states, have to be taught by teachers of the same religion as students.

The explanation of the bill states that the government will provide religious teachers to all schools.

Besides article 13 (1), Commission VI will also debate articles 3 and 4 on education goals and functions.

Article 11, which gives the central and local governments the same role in regulating and supervising education, will also be further scrutinized.

Article 31 on religious schools, which neglected to include Confucianism or Konghucu as a religion, will also be revised.

Article 70 on sanctions for those who use false certificates will have a penalty added for those who issue fake documents.

Vice chairman of Commission VI Heri Akhmadi of PDI Perjuangan said his party would propose a formulation team to change the explanation in article 13 (1).

"We propose a new clause in the explanation saying that schools and parents have to resolve the issue on religious classes on their own," Heri said.

"It means the government can't take the responsibility to provide religious teachers to respect the authority of private schools," he said.

At present, Christian schools generally require all students, regardless of their religion, to take classes in Christianity. Muslim schools teach only Islam and require all students, including Christians, to take classes in Islam.

The bill will affect Christian schools more than Muslim institutions as many Muslims study at Christian schools.

The education bill has continued to divide people in the country. Many protests have been held to support and reject the education bill.

Those who are against the education bill have said the bill gives authority to the government to intervene in religious lessons, which is supposed to be left up to families.

But those who support the bill said the country has to start building moral values through the provision of religious lessons for people as the current education system only produces intellectuals but commits corruptive practices.