Polemic Enters School At 5 Morning In Kupang, NTT DPRD Will Sit With The Provincial Government Tomorrow Wednesday

Illustration of face-to-face learning activities (PTM) at one of the State High Schools in October 2021. (ANTARA-Walda M)

East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) DPRD will sit down with the Provincial Government (Pemrov) to discuss the polemic of school entry for high school and vocational school students in Kupang starting at 05.00 WITA.

Deputy Chairperson of the NTT DPRD, Inche Sayuna, said the discussion would be held tomorrow, Wednesday, March 1. Commission V of the NTT DPRD will face face-to-face with the Provincial Government represented by the NTT Education and Culture Office.

Inche said that for now, school entry hours in Indonesia, which range from 6.30 to 8.30, are very early when compared to other countries.

"Currently, teaching and learning activities in Indonesia are among the earliest starts compared to schools around the world," he said in Kupang, NTT, Tuesday, February 28, which was confiscated by Antara.

He also said there is a lot of research that mentions school time that is too early is suspected to have the potential to reduce children's sleep time and this is at greater risk of disrupting the mental health of children who go to school.

Inche hopes that the school policy starting at 05.00 WITA in NTT will be reviewed and during the review process, the school schedule will be returned as it has been so far so as not to cause a commotion in the community.

Previously, NTT Governor Viktor B. Laiskodat in his meeting with the NTT Education Office and a number of school principals and equivalent high school teachers requested that SMA and SMK special school activities in NTT start early at 05.00 WITA.

This statement by the Governor of Laiskodat was later viral through social media and is now a debate in society, especially academics and education observers.