Parents prefer schools nearer to home

JAKARTA (JP): Fearing for the lives of their children due to the growing number of violent student brawls, many parents have decided to enroll their junior high school-graduated children in schools closer to their homes.

Interviewed separately on Monday, parents -- who were registering their children with state high schools at the beginning of this year's school term -- said that proximity between the school and their homes could help prevent their children from getting caught in student brawls.

Armin, 60, who was registering his son in SMUN (state high school) 35 at Bendungan Hilir, Central Jakarta, said that he chose the school for his son because it was located close to their house in Tanah Abang.

"My son will only have to ride a mikrolet (public minivan) to school every day," Armin said adding that he would be worried if his son had to change public transport vehicles several times on the journey to school and home again.

"I know my son will not get into a brawl on purpose. But he might be caught in one if he has to go a long way to get home from school," Armin said.

The street brawls, which have cost dozens of lives, have become common in the capital over the past few years.

On May 24, a student of vocational high school STM Respati in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, was killed after being struck by a machete in a student brawl while he was waiting for a bus to return home on Jl. Raya Bogor.

The dangers faced on Jakarta streets also worry female students.

Rini (not her real name), 40, said her daughter refused to go to a high school which had already accepted her on the grounds that the school was too far away and she was fearful of being mugged by delinquent schoolboys.

"Once she was mugged by (male) students from another school who took her shoes and her wallet," Rini explained.

Rini said that she was trying to get her daughter into SMUN 24 in Senayan, Central Jakarta, because it was closer to where she lived.

"I don't mind paying (the school) to get my daughter accepted. She is crying now in our house and refuses to go (to study in the other school)," Rini said.

Junior high school students are placed in high schools based on the alternatives given by the relevant regional office of the Ministry of National Education according to the student's final evaluation score (NEM).

Rini said that she had bribed an official of the high school to get her daughter accepted. However she refused to disclose the amount.

"It's a lot but I don't mind," she said.

Another parent, Iman Wanudi, 47, who was signing his son Dwi Hadiwibowo out of SMUN 24, said that he was doing so because his son's life would be in danger if he kept studying in the city.

"I'm moving him to an Islamic boarding school in Pekalongan (Central Java)," Iman said.

Dwi, who should have been entering his second year at the high school, said that students at his school were often involved in brawls with other schools.

Dwi also claimed that he was once going home on a bus to his house in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, when seven youths wearing school uniforms with no school badges pulled him of the bus.

"They beat me up without any (logical) reason. They said my friends (from SMUN 24) had just beaten one of their friends the other day," Dwi said, adding that he was lucky because he was rescued by some people who witnessed the attack.(08)