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)