Jakarta – The National Commission on Child Protection said here Monday that instances of violence against children committed by teachers had this year increased dramatically compared to past years.

The commission's data shows that the number of cases of violence increased to 326 in the period between January and June this year, from 75 cases in the same period last year. Last years total number of cases reached only 148.

The commission's secretary general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, said most reported cases were sexual abuse, followed by physical and psychological abuse. Arist said such violence mostly took place against students from elementary and junior high schools.

The violence occurred, he added, because teachers were under increased pressure to achieve targets set by their schools as part of efforts to maintain schools' quality, while receiving salaries below standards set by the government.

Data from the Association of Indonesian Honorary Teachers at State Schools showed that there were 250,000 honorary teachers who had not yet been promoted to civil servants as of July 2009.

Arist said the violence was also conducted by permanent teachers at schools. He said the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) had suspended licenses of teachers who had committed such assaults.

However, he said, not many of them had faced criminal charges even though the 2002 Child Protection Law stipulated that anybody found guilty of committing violence against children should recieve a minimum jail term of five years.

Chairman of the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI), Sulistiyo, acknowledged the increasing rate of violence against children. "It has massively increased over the past three years," he said during a press conference on Monday to promote National Teachers' Day, which falls on Wednesday.

He added that his association had received many complaints from parents whose children were physically abused by their teachers at school.

Unlike the National Commission on Child Protection, his association needed to gather more comprehensive data on complaints of violence. "I expect the association to publish the data by the end of this year," he said.

He added the violence ranged from sexual abuse to only tweaking students' ears because they had not listened to their teachers. Sulistiyo said teachers, who had committed severe violence against children, should be ready for license suspension.

"I won't punish teachers for tweaking their students' ears. But I will reprimand them, because we don't condone practices of physical punishment," he said.

He added that he had briefed headmasters and teachers during seminars this year in an attempt to cut down cases of physical assault against children in the classroom. (nia)