REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LEBAK - The concept of full day school is inapplicable and unpopular in the district of Lebak, Banten, a member of the district legislative assembly Muhammad Husen said.

"If the concept with 8 hours at school and five day a week is to be applied in the 2017/2018 academic year, the impact would be negative on Islamic religious education," the politician of the Nation Awakening Party (PKB) said here on Tuesday.

The people of Lebak are religious and application of full day school concept may lead to the non formal Islamic education being defunct, Husen said.

"Whereas non formal religious education after school time is necessary for moral and character development," he said.

He said the full day school concept is merely an application of imitative behavior not based on thorough studies, adding "therefore, we reject application of full day school."

"The minister better focuses on improving the school facilities Many schools in the regions including in Lebak have no good sanitation, he said.

The concept, which was first launched last year by Culture and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy, triggered controversies.

In Palangkaraya, the provincial city of Central Kalimantan, a regional legislator said the province could not fully implement full day school.

Only a number of schools with adequate facilities and infrastructure could apply the concept, Asdi Narang of the Commission X of the regional legislative assembly said in Palangka Raya on Tuesday.

"Schools in Central Kalimantan are not the same in facility and infrastructure as in Java," Asdi said.

He said his faction of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), though calling for a review, supports the program as it would help parents from worrying about the whereabouts of their children after school time everyday. Under the present system , children have too much time after school time.

He said implementation of the program will need the support of adequate facilities and infrastructure in addition to teaching staff.

"If the concept has to be implemented on July 1, 2017, we will see what would happen. What are the inputs from parents .

This will provide us in Commission X for evaluation of the full day school concept," he said.

Sinta Tri Setiani, an elementary school teacher in Kampung Bali, Central Jakarta, said it would be hard to implement the full-day school concept at public schools because of inadequate human resources and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, around 10,000 public and private schools this year has agreed to apply the Full Day School concept, a special staff of the minister for public communications Nasrullah has said.

He said as a consequence, application of the dull day school concept will need fund for additional facilities. In the beginning last year, 540 model schools received grant for the additional facilities.

"The target is that in 2019 all public and private schools will apply the concept," he said.

Under the program, school days are five days a week with Saturday holiday.

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