Jakarta – About 10,000 youth, mostly high school students, rallied outside parliament yesterday, urging legislators to pass a controversial Bill to regulate religious teaching in private schools.

If passed into law, the Bill would force the schools to organise religious education classes for all students. The classes must be conducted by teachers of the same faith as the students. The Bill has sparked protests throughout Indonesia.

The nation has the world's largest Muslim population and has prided itself for decades on being secular and tolerant of minority religions.

Islam is not the state religion although an estimated 90 per cent of the archipelago's 212 million people are Muslims. Currently, only state-owned schools or secular private schools offer religious classes for the followers of major religions, usually Islam and Christianity.

But many Indonesian Muslims send their children to Roman Catholic schools, where the education standard is normally higher than that of state schools. This is despite the fact that these schools require all students, including non-Catholics, to attend religious education classes on Catholicism. Similarly, private Islamic schools, such as the Al-Azhar, make it compulsory for non-Muslim students to attend Islamic lessons.

Resistance to the Bill comes mainly from private Catholic and Christian schools and educators from predominantly Christian provinces such as North Sulawesi, who see the move as a threat to the tradition and character of mission schools. The Bill is also being attacked by critics who see it as an indication that the state is increasingly interfering with the individual's rights to a religious belief.

Supporters say the Bill accommodates all religions and not just Islam. But many more Muslim children study in Christian schools than vice-versa.

The crowd yesterday chanted Islamic religious songs and waved banners, some of which supported the Muslim-based Justice Party. "Save the religious community from apostasy," said one banner. "Pass the education Bill right now," read another.

The student protesters wore school uniforms or political party T-shirts. Many female protesters wore the traditional Islamic head covering.

The peaceful but noisy crowd stretched for some 500m and blocked part of the main road outside parliament. Many female students fainted in the crush as more police officers were deployed to control the crowd. Water cannons were on standby.

"This Bill is fair," said protester Eli Yulianti, adding that it was in keeping with the Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom. "I think those who oppose the Bill are missionaries because many Muslims go to Christian schools and they want to teach Christianity to them."

Analysts say Muslim politicians are trying to exploit the issue in the run-up to next year's election. They point out that Muslim parents are free to transfer their students to Islamic schools if they are unhappy with the education at Christian schools.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle as of late Monday was insisting that legislators delay passage of the Bill. Most other factions were seeking a vote yesterday.