Jakarta – A parliamentary panel drafting an education Bill is retaining a controversial article requiring missionary schools to provide religious instruction in the pupils' own religion despite opposition from educators and mission schools.

But both legislators and government officials working on the draft over the weekend have agreed on a compromise: Schools will not be penalised for breaching the provision.

The chairman of the working committee on the Bill in the House of Representatives, Mr Anwar Arifin, said: "We have received enormous pressure from two separate groups – one demands the article be maintained, with punishment for schools that violate it, while the other demands the article be dropped.

"All factions finally agreed to maintain the article, as it is in line with the amended 1945 Constitution, but we leave the monitoring of the article to the public as part of social control and punishment."

With all the articles in the draft approved by the working committee and the government, the Bill will soon be sent to the House Commission VI on education for formal approval before being submitted to the House's plenary session, slated for May 20, for final approval. The controversial article has become a hot issue between Muslim and Christian groups.

Private schools run by Christian missionaries have expressed fears that the Bill will threaten their autonomy and encourage religious segregation in the country.

The controversial article in the Bill requires all students to receive religious instruction according to their beliefs from teachers of the same faith. It also requires schools to provide places of worship for all students.

At present, mission schools are not required to provide religious instructions to students other than those of the Christian faith.

Muslim groups, on the other hand, are pressing for such a legislation because they are concerned about the faith of the many Muslim students who attend private Christian schools.

With Article 13 included in the Bill, they can demand that the schools have Muslim teachers to provide religious instruction to Muslim students.

A number of religious leaders, particularly from Christian groups, and noted educators have said that religious education should be conducted only at the family level and that the government should not intervene in the matter.

They have demanded that the House drop the Bill and say that the current education law is still relevant. At present, missionary groups enjoy full autonomy in running their schools, without the intervention of the government.

Although the controversial article remains in the proposed Bill, the groups are happy that the government will not impose any legal punishment on them for failing to comply with the requirement.

Mr Anwar said that retaining the article in the Bill will also mean that Muslim religious groups cannot prohibit their followers from studying in mission schools that do not provide religious teachers in Islam.

The committee and the government also dropped an article on the appointment of investigators to probe any education violations such as falsifying and misusing certificates.

"Education institutions have to think positively about people, while investigators must be suspicious of people. Both roles are contradictory. So we decided to keep the investigation role with the police," said Mr Anwar.