Parents prefer schools nearer to home

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)