Readwrotes Blog

   Verify this: An officer of 2010 National census collects data of families living near a railway track in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, on Sunday. The month long census will reach villages, the smallest administration level in the country. JP/Nurhayati

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/27/2009 9:42 AM | National Dozens of university students in Malang, East Java, held a rally during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit Tuesday, to protest the newly endorsed law on legal education entities and the joint ministerial decree on minimum labor wages. The students marched and tried to enter the Brawijaya University campus, where Yudhoyono is scheduled to inaugurate several facilities. Police stopped the students about 200 meters from the campus gate. "We only want to meet with the President. We are asking him to withdraw the law and the decree. The [education] law will lead to discrimination against the poor," Iwan, the rally coordinator, said in his speech, as quoted by kompas.com . The law and the decree have been separately criticized, the one because it may lead to the commercialization of education, the other for violating existing labor law. Yudhoyono is scheduled to give a lecture at the univ...

Suherdjoko and Agus Maryono , The Jakarta Post, Semarang/Purwokerto About 5,000 students and teachers from Catholic and Protestant private high schools staged a rally on Saturday at the Central Java legislature to protest against the education bill now being deliberated at the House of Representatives. The teachers and students, who came from the provincial towns of Semarang, Ungaran, Magelang, Salatiga, Magelang, Ambarawa and Muntilan, said the bill was a threat to national harmony. In their statement read by Catholic priest Tri Hartomo, the protesters said the bill was not in line with the preamble of 1945 Constitution which states that one of the national objectives is to build an intelligent nation. ""Instead of educating people, Article 4 of the bill asserts that national education aims to produce faithful and devout people,"" the statement read. Article 13 is at the center of the controversy as it stipulates that students have the right to...

  Uniforms for sale: School and university uniforms are given price tags during a rally at Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Sunday to protest the soaring education cost. The rally was to commemorate the National Education Day. JP/Nurhayati

 Dina Indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 05/02/2010 4:09 PM | National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh has suggested high schools with few students and low pass grades based on the recent national examinations should merge. “If a region has two high schools with few students, and they are located near to each other, they could merge,” Nuh said in Jakarta on Sunday. Nuh said the government would set a strict and high standard on the establishment of new schools in the future. “Therefore, it doesn’t mean that someone who owns a building can simply establish a school. We have requirements and standards to fulfill,” he added. This year, all students from 267 schools participating in the national examinations have to take remedial tests on May 10-14. Some of the failing schools only had 20 students taking the national exams, said Nuh.