Principal Of SMPN 46 Says His School Doesn't Require Female Students To Wear Hijab

The school gate of SMPN 46 South Jakarta/ Photo: Jehan/ VOI

JAKARTA - The Principal of SMPN 46 South Jakarta, Endin Haerudin, spoke about two teachers who allegedly forced their students to wear the hijab.

He explained that actually what the teachers were doing in their place was to build an attitude of piety and faith from their students.

However, said Endin, its nature is not coercion. Because in this school there is no obligation for students to wear the hijab.

"Maybe he is in class and asking about this in his function as a teacher. His function is to build character, not only knowledge, but also attitudes and skills," said Endin when confirmed, Wednesday, August 3.

"(However) We from school have never provided verbal or written information regarding the obligation to wear the hijab. That doesn't exist at all. Even if a child wears a headscarf, it's because of his will," he continued.

Endin explained that the incident of reprimanding the hijab began during the face-to-face learning process at his school. Then one of the teachers asked R to wear a headscarf.

He considered that the actual questions asked were general things. However, because the student is often asked, so the student feels uncomfortable.

It is known, a child with the initials R (13) felt depressed after being reprimanded by his teacher in front of his friends for not wearing a headscarf.

"I'm learning and interactive in front of the class, meaning that there is a question and answer process, then the teacher asks. When asked, the answer is not ready. For the teacher, it doesn't matter, only the question is repeated, so it feels uncomfortable," he said.

"So that incident is a common thing between teachers and students, because teachers have a moral obligation to build character. The only obstacle is the situation is not right," he added.

For this incident, Endin admitted that he had carried out coaching with all the teachers. This is done to prevent similar incidents.

"We are coordinating, coaching both personally and as a whole for the teachers," he said.

Now student R has returned to being cheerful, even the student has been active and playing with his friends. This was said after the student was observed by the teachers at his school.

"It's normal, and we've been observing it. We've looked at it, there's no fear. We have screenshots of him moving, running, moving, answering questions, playing with his friends. We started from 6 in the morning until after school, kids it's average happy. Even the teacher also greeted first, "he concluded.