Jakarta – The Jakarta Police, in coordination with the Jakarta Education Agency, plan to send 3,000 disruptive high school students to boot camp as part of an effort to quell school violence.
Jakarta Police spokesman, Sr. Comr. Rikwanto, said on Tuesday the students would be divided into 14 groups. The first batch began their program on Tuesday at the State National Police School (SPN) in Lido, Sukabumi, West Java.
"There will be 250 students participating from all over Jakarta in the first batch of the program and they will stay at the police school for one week," Rikwanto told reporters. "The students will participate in several disciplinary activities and be given ethics and moral lessons. There will be outbound activities as well," he added.
This week's program is designed for students from vocational schools, mainly those studying engineering. The program for students from general high schools will start on Nov. 20.
Jakarta Education Agency deputy chief Agus Suradika said that the agency hoped that the program would change the students' mind-sets and discourage them from taking part in brawls.
"We aim to change their mind-set on the meaning of life and friendship. We want them to appreciate their lives more. The program is aimed to repress their will to fight," Agus told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
According to Agus, the agency also incorporated Islamic-based "emotional and spiritual quotient" motivational training to develop the students' emotional sensitivity.
"We have numbers of preventive approaches to resolve student brawls. One of the approaches is by encouraging the schools to give extra attention to troubled students. If needed, the teachers will communicate with the students' parents to solve the problems together," he said.
He said that the schools had also been encouraged to organize more extracurricular activities to minimize the possibilities of students becoming involved in fights.
"The rehabilitative approach to prevent brawls is to expel the students involved. However, they will be given choices of schools that might help them to deal with their problems before being expelled," he said.
Concerns have risen over the escalating number of student brawls in the city after two high school students were killed in separate clashes in September.
On Sept. 24, a confrontation between SMA 6 high school and its long-time rival SMA 70 high school in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, caused the death of SMA 6 first-year student Alawy Yusianto Putra.
Two days later, a Yayasan Karya 66 student, Deni Yanuar, died during a brawl with students from SMK Kartika Zeni on a street in Manggarai, South Jakarta.
The police have completed their investigation into the murder of Alawy and handed the case over to the prosecutor's office last week. One SMA 70 high school student, FR, will be charged with murder. (nad)