NTT DPRD Rejects Governor Viktor Laiskodat's Policy To Enter School At 5 Morning

Students of SMA Negeri I Kupang have a morning rally in the school grounds when they enter school at 5 am, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. (ANTARA-Kornelis Kaha)

East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) DPRD strongly rejects the policy of entering school at 5 am initiated by Governor Viktor Laiskodat.

"I don't want to call it a policy, but this is an announcement. We from Commission V reject the implementation of schools at 05.30 am," said Chairman of Commission V of the NTT DPRD Yunus Takandivewa in Kupang, NTT, Thursday, March 2, as reported by Antara.

Yunus admitted that on Wednesday, March 1, he had held a hearing with the Head of the NTT Education Office. Lusi related to the policy. He said he firmly rejected the policy in front of the Head of the NTT Education Office.

Yunus admitted that he was disappointed with the unilateral rules made by the NTT government, because he did not conduct a study in advance regarding school activities at 5.30 am.

He said the implementation of schools at 05.30 am not only caused negative reactions from people in NTT, but also viral throughout Indonesia and various responses.

Yunus said that his party requested that the implementation of the regulation must be reviewed, and during the study process the implementation of schools at 05.30 am must be stopped or pending.

"This is done so that the NTT Education Office has sufficient time to formulate strategies in order to improve the quality of education in NTT," he said.

Yunus said the DPRD would wait for the formulation, so that later it could produce rational policies with all kinds of considerations that could be accounted for.

The DPRD itself, said Yunus, did not consider school at 05.30 am not a policy because it did not meet the elements or qualifications as what a policy should be.

"This is only announced, then 'forced' to be then run by high school/vocational schools in NTT without going through a thorough study," he said.

He should have added before it was implemented, also think about how the mode of transportation is, how about security for children who have to walk to school in a dark atmosphere.

Deputy Chairperson of the NTT DPRD, Inche Sayuna, also admitted that he was surprised when the regulation first emerged for schools in Kupang City.

Inche admitted that there had never been a conversation with the NTT DPRD regarding this matter, and suddenly it had been implemented in several equivalent high school schools in Kupang City.

"Honestly, we from the DPRD were surprised by this policy, therefore we also ask that it be necessary to study the rules," he said.