SKB 3 Menteri Reaps Pro and Cons, Should This Policy be Implemented?

Three ministers, namely the Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, and Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas issued a Joint Decree (Surat Keputusan Bersama / SKB) regarding the use of uniforms and attributes in the school environment. In this SKB 3 Menteri stated that students, educators and education personnel in the school environment have the right to choose to wear uniforms and attributes without specific religious characteristics in accordance with statutory regulations. However, the Supreme Court canceled this Joint Decree because it was considered contrary to higher laws and regulations.

The existence of the SKB 3 Menteri also reaps pros and cons by the public and officials in Indonesia. On the pro side, they agree with the SKB 3 Ministers because they think that the SKB 3 Menteri can stop the discriminatory intolerance that has occurred so far in Indonesian schools. Meanwhile, those who are contra do not agree with the SKB 3 of the Menteri because they think this policy is against Islamic teachings which oblige wearing the veil for women Muslims.

If we look at the purpose of this policy, it is quite good because the SKB 3 Menteri can stop discrimination against certain religions. Because as we know, students, teachers and education personnel in public schools come from various ethnicities and different religions. So, it feels inappropriate for public schools to regulate the provisions on the use of uniforms based on a certain religion. However, it would be better if the SKB 3 Menteri policy was for non-Muslim students only.

What needs to be underlined in this policy is that the government gives freedom to all students in wearing school uniforms.This is what raises the cons to this policy. If the government just gives freedom to all students this will create new problems. As we know, the majority of the population in Indonesia is Muslim, so Muslim students are taught from an early age to cover up and wear a veil from school so that students are accustomed to continuing to wear the veil in accordance with Islamic teachings which require women to wear the veil.

If the government just gives freedom to students, this will make students think about wearing the uniform as they like. If there is only one Muslim student who takes off the hijab and wears tight clothes, this will definitely trigger other students to imitate this because we know that the age of the students is still very unstable and easy to be influenced by things around them. Of course this is very unethical if this happens.

 In addition, if the SKB 3 Menteri simply gives freedom to students in school uniforms, this is very likely to cause social inequality among students. At this time there are still a lot of social inequality in school, especially if students are given freedom just like that, there will be groups of 'the rich students' and the groups of 'the poor students'. If students wear the same uniform so that no one feels superior and using uniforms also train students to be more disciplined, especially in clothes.

Therefore, this SKB 3 Menteri still really needs to be reconsidered. So far, there is nothing wrong with wearing school uniforms, especially the use of the veil for Muslim students. With this uniformity will avoid the existence of social inequality. It would be better if the policy of the SKB 3 Menteri is focuses more on students who are not Muslim and the government should follow up and even impose strict sanctions for schools that force non-Muslim students to wear the veil instead of giving students freedom because this will actually be a boomerang in the future.