Joint Decree (SKB) 3 Minister Of School Uniforms Considered Fulfilling Human Rights

Illustration - A number of students take part in face-to-face teaching and learning at SD Negeri 26 Sukajadi, Banyuasin, South Sumatra. (Nova Wahyudi / Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), Ministry of Religion (Kemenag), and Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) signed a Joint Decree (SKB) regarding the use of uniforms and attributes in public schools for primary and secondary education.

In the SKB, students, educators, and education personnel in public schools have the right to choose to wear uniform attributes with or without certain religious characteristics.

Then, local governments and schools may not oblige, order, require, appeal to, or prohibit the use of uniforms and attributes with certain religious characteristics.

However, specifically students, educators, and education personnel in the Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) are exempt from the provisions of the laws and regulations regarding the government of NAD.

"School institutions must no longer require students and education personnel to wear uniforms with certain religious attributes. Whatever religion it is", said Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim at the signing of the SKB Three Ministers, Wednesday, February 3.

He hopes that in the future there will be no more polemic about school uniform attributes, such as forcing the use of hijab for non-Muslim students at Public Vocational High School (SMKN) 2 Padang to become a polemic.

"The use of school uniforms with religious attributes in public schools is the decision of students and teachers as individuals", said Nadiem.

With the signing of the SKB, local governments and school principals are obliged to revoke regulations requiring the use of uniforms with religious attributes no later than 30 days after the decision is made.

"If there is a violation of this joint decision, there are several sanctions that can be given specifically to the violating party. For example, local governments can impose sanctions on school principals, educators, and education personnel", he explained.

SKB 3 of the Minister of School Uniforms is the fulfillment of human rights

Commissioner for the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) for Education, Retno Listyarti, said that the provision that students and educators have the right to choose school uniforms and attributes without religious specificity or with religious specificity is a manifestation of human rights (HAM) with their respective beliefs.

"This is important to emphasize because it is prohibited to use or oblige to use, all of which violate human rights, whereas education must be carried out in a democratic, just, non-discriminatory manner and uphold human rights", said Retno in her statement to VOI.

Retno continued, the SKB Three Ministers answered and at the same time stopped various polemics that had existed in a number of regions, because of the emergence of various regulations related to uniforms in school environments that tended to be discriminatory and intolerant.

One of the cases of intolerance in the educational environment, which has recently become a public spotlight, is the forced use of the headscarf for non-Muslim students by the SMK Negeri 2 Padang, West Sumatra.

This story begins with the upload of a Facebook account, Elianu Hia, who is a parent of a student at SMK Negeri 2 Padang. She uploaded a video of her son being called by the school for not wearing a headscarf. He objected to the existing regulations because they are non-Muslims.

After being given an explanation the school did not want to make concessions. Furthermore, on the grounds of carrying out obligations, these students must still wear the hijab in accordance with school regulations.

This video then went viral on social media and caused a lot of criticism until finally the Principal of SMK Negeri 2 Padang, Rusmadi officially conveyed his apology. He conveyed this in a press conference held on Friday, January 22.

"As the Principal of SMKN 2 Padang, I would like to apologize for all the mistakes of the staff in the field of student affairs and counseling in applying the rules and dress code for students", said Rusmadi at that time.

He said that the implementation of this obligation was purely a fault on his part and for students who had been forced to go to school as usual.