Jakarta – Following two recent school brawls that have resulted in the deaths of two students, Religious Affairs minister Suryadharma Ali put the blame on a lack of religious discussion in schools.

He claims that 90 minutes a week of religious classes, as regulated in the national curriculum from elementary to high school levels, was not enough to indoctrinate Indonesian youth with religious values.

"From our point of view, these rampant student brawls are triggered, among other things, by a lack of hours of religious instruction in school," Suryadharma said as quoted by tempo.co on Thursday. "We will cooperate with the Education Ministry and the Home Affairs Ministry to add extra hours of religious subjects in schools."

The extra hours for religious discussions, he said, can be found by reducing other extracurricular activities or imposed during school holidays. He urged the Education Ministry to pay special attention to schools in remote areas to prevent the violence from from spreading.

Two students have died this week after of two school brawls in Jakarta. On Monday, 16-year-old Alawy Y. Putra, a student at SMA 6, was stabbed to death, allegedly by a student of the neighboring SMA 70 high school.

Two days later,17-year-old Deny Yanuar of SMA Yayasan Karya 66 died during a violent clash between students of his school and those of SMK Kartika Zeni vocational school in South Jakarta. The police arrested FR, a student at SMA 70 in Yogyakarta on Thursday. (swd)