UTBK Participants' Disability Case At UI Asked To Take Off Hearing Aid, Ministry Of Law And Human Rights: Not As Much As Human Rights Respect

Illustration - Medical officers show hearing aid (ABD). BETWEEN PHOTOS/Rahmad/aww.

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) said that cases of people with hearing impairments or disabilities removed their hearing aid (ABD) when they were about to take a Computer-Based Writing Examination (UTBK) at the University of Indonesia (UI) became a concern for his party.

The person with a disability named Naufal Athallah who is a student of SMKN in South Tangerang City (Tangsel) joined UTBK as a condition for entering state universities.

"What happened to Naufal is of course our concern so that we will then communicate with the Ministry of Education and Culture (Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology), so that similar incidents do not need to be repeated," said the Director General of Human Rights at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Dhana Putra in a statement, Sunday, June 23, quoted by Antara.

Dhana deeply regrets the incident that happened to Naufal while attending UTBK on May 14, 2024. According to him, the use of ABD is not intended to act fraudulently in the selection exam for entering universities.

"We can say that the removal of ABD Naufal is not in line with the government's commitment and enthusiasm to encourage the fulfillment and respect for human rights for people with disabilities in the world of Indonesian education," he said.

Moreover, he continued, Indonesia is a country that participates in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which must encourage the implementation of an inclusive education system.

"The prohibition on the use of ABD limits access for deaf people to get equal and inclusive educational rights," he added.

He explained, through Law Number 8 of 2016 concerning Persons with Disabilities, and various regulations, the government continues to strive to continuously increase the fulfillment of human rights for persons with disabilities.

One form of government efforts, he said, is the entry of persons with disabilities into the target group in Presidential Regulation Number 53 of 2021 concerning the National Action Plan for Human Rights.

However, he admits that there are still a number of technical challenges in encouraging the fulfillment of human rights for persons with disabilities. The reason, he said, is that the fulfillment of human rights for persons with disabilities in the public sector, including in the world of education, is of course related to the budget and level of understanding regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.

Therefore, he assessed that what happened to Naufal showed that there are still people who do not well understand the importance of respecting human rights for persons with disabilities. So, he believes in the importance of intensifying human rights dissemination related to persons with disabilities to various levels of society, including in the world of education.

"This step is important so that various elements in the world of education, including UTBK organizers, can have a better awareness about inclusive education and respect for the rights of persons with disabilities," he said.

Meanwhile, he explained that currently his party is building collaboration with a number of equivalent high school and high school students in Jakarta who are members of the Human Rights Lovers Youth Community (Koppeta HAM) in intensifying human rights understanding, including the rights of people with disabilities among teenagers.

"The hope is that by fostering human rights awareness from an early age we can realize an inclusive and fair education for all," he explained.