Why no school lunch break?

Why no school lunch break?

Indonesian schools have long school hours without a proper lunch break. In this letter I am commenting mainly on junior high schools. The school my daughter attends is a private school in Bogor, but I think that school hours are the same in every school because the education system here is centralized and controlled by the government.

Students enter their schools at 7 o'clock in the morning, and finish their studies at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. This is already six hours, and there is no lunch hour. The break time is only 15 minutes between classes.

I think that many children have breakfast about 6.00 or 6.30. Even though the classes end at 1.00 p.m., very often children do not leave their schools immediately. The reasons are: to make photocopies for the next day -- this is the phenomenon here; or to attend 'group study' for the assignments given by teachers. So, very often they leave around 2.00 p.m. without taking proper meals. Some may eat noodles and meatballs or fried rice at the school cafeteria, or buy something from the street vendors.

I prohibit my daughter from doing so mainly because of sanitary reasons. Since her elementary school days, I often give her a snack from home to eat at school during break time. However, she does not eat it often because there is not enough time.

One big problem is that students cannot eat inside the classrooms. Even just a simple sandwich they have to eat while standing or sitting on the concrete outside the classrooms.

In Japan, in almost every school from elementary to senior high, students can eat at their own desks inside the classroom. Moreover, Japanese schools start around 8.00 a.m., and usually they have a lunch hour from 12.00 till 1.00 p.m., then they start the afternoon curriculum.

In most elementary and public junior high schools they have a lunch, in the classrooms, provided by the school. If this is not provided, many students bring their lunch boxes from home, or they buy bread and milk, etc. and eat at their desk during the lunch hour.

I want to question why, at Indonesian schools, students cannot eat in the classrooms, and also why school hours are so long without proper lunch breaks.

Another problem is that teachers often give group study assignments within a short time. As in the case of my daughter's school, it is very difficult to work together because the group members live far away from each other. This has forced them to stay at school long enough to finish the assignment, often without having a proper meal.

Also group singing assignments prevent the students from leaving the school earlier, because they have to arrange everything, including the costumes. Yet the group's achievements are not satisfactory because of lack of proper preparation. In my opinion the students should be given more time to arrange the group study so as to achieve better results. They can use the school hours when the teaching staff have a meeting.

I believe educators and the Ministry of Education and Culture must show due concern over the health of school children.

Name and address

withheld