Indonesian Court Annuls ‘Discriminatory’ Ruling on International Schools

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday annulled a ruling that obliges the government to set up international-standard schools, saying it is discriminatory and belittles Indonesian in favor of English.
The court made the decision in response to a judicial review filed by Indonesia Corruption Watch and a number of education activists, who accused the ruling of influencing the commercialization of the education sector by allowing such schools to freely charge students under the guise of improving the quality of teachinG
“Article 50, paragraph 3 of the 2003 Law on the National Education System violates the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia,” court chief Mahfud M. D. said as he read the verdict.
The nullified paragraph states, “The government and/or regional administrations [must] set up at least [one school] at every level of education to develop it into an international-standard unit.”
Justice Akil Mochtar said the government’s division of schools into three classes — international-standard schools (SBI), schools attempting to earn international-standard status (RSBI) and regular schools — is discriminatory.
“The caste system… is discriminatory and is against the Constitution,” Akil told a press conference after Tuesday’s hearing.
“Only students from rich families have the opportunity to study at RSBI or SBI, which are elite schools, while those from underprivileged families can only study at regular schools,” he explained.
Akil added that international-standard schools’ requiring the use of English for most subjects was also against the Constitution.
“RSBIs or SBIs intentionally neglect the role of Indonesian; this is against Article 36 of the 1945 Constitution specifying that the national language is Indonesian,” he said.