Schools told to replace the Monday 'day off'

Schools told to replace the Monday 'day off'

JAKARTA (JP): Director-General for Primary and Secondary
Education Indra Djati Sidi on Tuesday asked schools, which halted
their activities over possible unrest on Monday, to replace the
"sudden day off" to meet the minimum 245 active school days.

"We're not supposed to have a holiday every time there is some
political tension in the country ... but I understand yesterday's
(Jan. 15) situation," Indra Djati told the media on Tuesday.

Indra also said that better coordination between the school
authorities and the security forces must be prepared in the
future so that "children's schooling hours will not be
sacrificed".

Therefore the school headmasters who had their teaching
activities halted on Monday must replace the school day taking it
from the next possible official school holiday, he said.

In anticipation of possible unrest over the planned
mobilization of both supporters and opponents of President
Abdurrahman Wahid, at least 14 schools in Central and South
Jakarta halted their activities on Monday.

"We understand that parents are concerned about their children
and there were schools which opted to give Monday off," Jakarta's
chief of the Ministry of Education office Alwi Nurdin said.

"However, those schools will have to recover the school day
which can be taken from holidays prior to the national
examination test or other possible holidays," he said.

Principal of SMU 8 state senior high school in South Jakarta,
Ida Hasida, however, said that her school did not give the
students an entirely free day on Monday.

"On Saturday our teachers had given the pupils assignments and
homework that were supposed to be discussed today (Tuesday). We
did not just let them have an 'empty' day off," Ida said.

Apart from the "holiday issue", Indra Djati Sidi said the
planned joint date of the National Exams (Ebtanas) and National
University Entrance Test (UMPTN) has been intensively discussed
and "there would be no technical problems".

"The idea is to let the students take the whole exams in one
period so they do not have to study twice. The test materials,
however, will be different from the previous year as both the
tests have different goals," Indra said. (edt)