Indonesian high school students forced to go to class at 5am to ‘build character’

How to teach discipline to teenagers in Indonesia and build their character? You have to get up early. Very early. At least that’s what the governor of East Nusa Tenggara says, who recently launched a pilot project in a dozen high schools in Kupang, the provincial capital. Since last month, final year students from the affected institutions have been returning to class at five in the morning.

Build student character… by forcing them to get up at dawn

This was stated by Viktor Laiskodat, the governor behind the initiative “- The main reason [à cette mesure]is to forge the character of our students so that they learn the discipline In Indonesia, classes usually start between 7:00 and 8:00 and end around 15:30. According to The Guardian, this measure is strongly criticized, especially by parents. If they fear for the safety of their children who have to travel in the middle of the night, they especially notice that their teenagers are exhausted. To arrive on time, they often have to get up at four in the morning. A perfectly reasonable program for the governor:

They can sleep at 10:00 and wake up at 4:00. Six hours of sleep is enough. [Ils peuvent] wash for 30 minutes and travel for 30 minutes, as everything is closed in this city, so they can be at school at 5.

Viktor Laiskodat, Detik Bali (in Indonesian), February 28, 2023

Depriving teenagers of sleep, a violent and dangerous practice

Contrary to what the governor of East Nusa Tenggara thinks, students need more than six hours of sleep a night. At 17 or 18 they have to sleep between 8 and 10 hours. Sleep is so important to teens that in 2014, the American Pediatric Academy concluded that school days shouldn’t start before 8:30 in order to stay on their schedule.

Lack of sleep has a major impact on teenagers’ metabolism. Too short nights impair alertness and concentration and lead to a drop in mood. Eventually, young people become more irritable and may develop learning disabilities. This measure is not only violent but also counterproductive as the primary objective is to teach discipline to adolescents. Lack of sleep can conversely dispel them.

Within the public authorities themselves, this experimentation is not only gaining followers. Since February, the decision has been hotly debated. The ombudsman [la personne chargée d’assurer la médiation entre la population et les autorités, ndlr]finally asked the central government to intervene. For their part, local lawmakers are calling for the immediate revocation of a measure that is not based on nothing. So far without success, Viktor Laiskodat has even extended the decision to all civil servants working in the affected establishments.