Republika, page 9
The Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, Yohana Yambise, has requested the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) to take note of the conditions of the different regions in regard to the five-day school week policy. Yohana revealed that the Ministry, through the Deputy for Children’s Growth, has provided recommendations for Kemendikbud to consider.
Yohana said that even though the Ministerial Regulation of Education and Culture (Permendikbud) Number 23 Year 2007 concerning School Day has been legalized, nevertheless her officials had several recommendations that Kemendikbud should take into account. This is because she believes that not all regions are ready for such a policy to be applied across the whole of Indonesia.
Yohana explained that there are several obstacles that will be faced, especially the existing facilities and infrastructure at schools. Moreover, geographically, several regions will meet obstacles in the implementation of the five-day school. Therefore, she continued, such a policy is not considered to be ideal for the development of children’s schooling.
At another event, the Director General of Primary and Secondary Education (Dikdasmen) of Kemendikbud, Hamid Muhammad, stated that Kemendikbud will not force schools to apply the five-day school week. For schools that are able to apply a five-day school, their learning activities can still be implemented over six days. However, teachers would need to be at school 40 hours a week, or 6.5 hours a day.
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