The Education and Culture Ministry, along with the Transportation Ministry, has issued a follow-up policy for Eid homecoming arrangements in 2022, extending school holidays by three days.
The policy is only applicable for school students in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi, known as Jabodetabek.
“The Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry is following up by coordinating with the provincial governments of DKI Jakarta, West Java, and Banten to provide flexibility in adding three days of school holidays until 12th May,” confirmed Acting Head of the Bureau of Cooperation and Public Relations at the ministry, Anang Ristanto, on Thursday 5th May.
Jakarta had previously determined Eid school holidays to run until 11th May, according to DKI Jakarta Education Office Head of Public Relations, Taga Radjagah. This is regulated in a circular letter from the Education Office no. 13504/1.851 regarding activities at the end of the 2021/2022 school year.
A member of Commission V at the House of Representatives, Irwan Fecho, stated that the ineffectiveness of the homecoming arrangements carried out by the government was clearly evidenced by the extension of the school holiday period to reduce the density of travellers returning home from the holidays. Schools should have restarted on Monday 9th May 2022 before the change was announced.
Fecho said that this was a difficult decision for the government to take, considering that the homecoming flow before Eid caused long traffic jams. The long snarls occurred in several main sections of the Trans Java Toll Road, the Merak Port, as well as outside Java.
“Travellers certainly don’t want long traffic jams to occur again. One option is to extend the school holidays,” he said.
