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