Children Participate In Demonstrations To Reject Job Creation Law Issued From School, KPAI: Potential To Violate Law

illustration (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Commissioner for the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), Retno Listrarti, regretted that a number of regional education service heads threatened to expel students from school if caught participating in a demonstration against the Job Creation Act.

In addition, there is also a threat that students will be transferred to package C education and transfer to suburban schools. Retno said that this information was obtained from Depok and Palembang areas.

"Children should not be threatened with sanctions or punished by the regional government. The right to education of these children must still be fulfilled and must fulfill it in accordance with the mandate of the Indonesian constitution," said Retno in her statement, Thursday, October 15.

Retno thought that the prohibition against students from participating in demonstrations was actually a good intention, namely preventing children from becoming victims if the actions that were followed led to chaos.

However, the form of prohibition should be in the form of an appeal to all teachers to coordinate with the parents of their students so that they can work together to give their children understanding of the potential dangers when children participate in demonstrations, not by threat of sanctions.

"The involvement of parents and teachers in providing understanding through healthy dialogue is very important, because currently children are still learning from home, so the role of the family is very strong," he said.

"But, prohibiting by including a sentence if it is violated will be given a sanction which is not the right policy and has the potential to violate the prevailing laws and regulations in Indonesia," Retno continued.

As is known, the Head of the South Sumatra Provincial Education Office, Riza Fahlevi, threatened the children participating in the demonstration to be expelled from school. In exchange, students take equivalent education or package C and are asked to go to schools on the outskirts of South Sumatra.

Not only that, the Acting Mayor of Depok, Dedi Supandi, also said that he would impose a penalty in the form of dropping out (DO) or being expelled from school if there were students who took part in demonstrations related to rejection of the Omnibus Law.