While it is already common practice in most countries around the world, Indonesia has just now come up with the breakthrough of giving two-day weekends to schoolchildren.
Currently, most public schools (and some private schools) require students to attend school six days a week, a regulation that has long been criticized for being overbearing on students, potentially exhausting them and limiting their ability to learn.
But starting next academic year, Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy said it is going to be mandatory for public schools (from primary to high school) nationwide to give students two-day weekends.
“That’s right, full holiday,” Muhadjir told reporters at the State Palace yesterday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
That means school weekends fall on Saturdays and Sundays starting with the 2017-2018 school year.
Muhadjir said that this was a result of a regulation that limits public school teachers, who are state civil servants, to work 40 hours a week. As such, a school day will be limited to 8 hours starting next year.
Those of us who have already graduated from a public Indonesian school are kicking ourselves that the government didn’t come to their senses a lot sooner…
