Rector defends controversial education bill

Rector defends controversial education bill

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives should pass a bill on national
education in spite of protests from some organizations, Suyanto,
the rector of Yogyakarta State University (UNY), said in a
discussion hosted by the Association of Indonesian Muslim
Intellectuals (ICMI) on Tuesday.

"I acknowledge that several organizations have voiced
objections saying that the bill is worse than Law No. 2/1989 on
education. On the contrary, I think the bill is better than the
existing law," Suyanto, also a former head of the Committee for
Education Reform, said.

He said that the protests were mainly focused on point 1 of
Article 12, which said that all students had the right to receive
religious education according to their faith from teachers who
are of the same religion.

As a consequence, Catholic schools, for example, would have to
provide teachers for Islamic lessons.

On March 5, a dialog hosted by the National Catholic Education
Council (MNPK) and the Christian Education Council (MPK)
concluded that the House and the government should postpone
passing the bill, which was scheduled to be passed by May 20. One
of their reasons was that the bill ignored pluralism in the
nation.

The dialog featured education experts such as Ki Supriyoko
from Tamansiswa Yogyakarta, Achmad Sanusi from Indonesian
Education University (UPI), Soedradjat Djiwandono from Driyarkara
School of Philosophy, Muhammadi from House Commission VI for
national education and Judo Poerwowidagdo from MPK.

Heribertus Sumarjo, an education commission official of the
Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI), told The Jakarta Post in an
interview on Tuesday that an education law should support the
task of "educating people" as stipulated in the preamble of the
1945 Constitution.

"However, we see that the bill focuses more on the
strengthening of religious beliefs, instead. We think religion is
a private matter and the government should not interfere in
that," he said.

He refused to comment further about point 1 of Article 12 in
the bill.

Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, a member of House Commission VI, said
in the ICMI discussion that the House would go ahead with its
plan to pass the bill by May 20.

"We have already held hearings with representatives of
religion-based schools. And they have not raised any objections,"
he said.

"So, I was surprised to hear of these recent protests. But, I
think the protests are not significant."