The increasing awareness of violence in educational institutions have prompted the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology ("MECRT") to recently introduced an updated legal framework which governs the prevention and management of violence incidents within educational institutions, through the MECRT Regulation No. 46 of 2023 regarding the Prevention and Handling of Violence in Educational Unit ("Regulation 46/2023").

Regulation 46/2023 exists to ensure that students receive an education in a safe, comfortable, and enjoyable environment, while also providing workplace protection for educators and education personnel. Within this updated regulation, several notable changes have been implemented compared to the previous MECRT Regulation No. 82 of 2013 on the same matter, including the wider range of violence types and the mandatory formation of the Prevention and Handling Teams (Tim Pencegahan dan Penanganan Kekerasan, "TPPK") by educational units, which were not covered in the previous regulation.

This ARMA Update discusses the key points of the Regulation 46/2023, specifically regarding the principles of the prevention and management of violence in educational units, parties impacted and the categories of violence, as well as the mandatory formation of TPPK in educational units.

Principles of the Prevention and Management of Violence

The prevention and management of violence within the educational units is conducted in accordance with several principles, which as follows:1

  1. Non-discrimination;
  2. Best interest of the child;
  3. Child participation;
  4. Gender justice and equality;
  5. Equal rights and accessibility;
  6. Accountability;
  7. Caution; and
  8. Educational sustainability.

Targeted Parties

Regulation 46/2023 targets not only the students and educators, but the educational personnel, parents/guardians, school committees, and the community is also involved in preventing and mitigating violence within educational units.2

Essentially, both formal and non-formal educational units, including the equality education units and special education units) must adhere to specific guidelines outlined in the Regulation 46/2023. Such educational units shall include:3

  1. Early-childhood education (Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, or "PAUD");
  2. Elementary-level education; and
  3. Secondary-level education.

Forms of Violence

Under this regulation, violence within educational units may encompasses in different forms, such as:4

  1. Violence occurred between students, educators, school staff, committee members, and other individuals associated with the educational institution while they are within the location of the educational units or outside the location of the educational units; and
  2. Violence involving more than 1 (one) educational unit.

Further, the newly enacted Regulation 46/2023 also specified 6 (six) types of violence which may be conducted physically, verbally, non-verbally, and/or through information and communication technology media, as summarized below:

No. Type of Violence Examples
1. Physical Brawl or mass brawl, mistreatment, fights, economic exploitation through forced labour, homicide, and/or other act of violence declared in the laws and regulations.5
2. Psychological Excommunication, rejection, abandonment, humiliation, spreading rumours, mocking calls, intimidation, terror, public shaming, extortion, and/or other similar acts.6
3. Bullying Repeated acts of physical and/or psychological violence that involve power relations.7
4. Sexual Violence Instances of discrimination or harassment based on someone's physical appearance or gender, intentional display of genitals, catcalling, unsolicited sharing of explicit videos, capturing images or videos of sexual acts without consent, sexual assault, and other related sexual activities.8
5. Discrimination and Intolerance Prohibition on/forced wearing of uniforms/working attire in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, discrimination relating to certain religious subjects and relevant religious practices/exercises; reducing, hindering, not realizing the rights/needs of students; privileging prospective leaders/managers of organizations based on certain identity backgrounds in educational units; and so forth.9
6. Policies Containing Violence Written and unwritten policies, including decrees, circulars, official notes, guidelines, appeals, instructions and/or other forms of action, which have the potential or lead to the occurrence of Violence.10
7. Other Form of Violence

Mandatory Establishment of TPPK

To prevent and handle any violence within the educational units,11 the Indonesian government has mandated every educational element to establish an official unit to support such objectives. These include the mandatory establishment of a TPPK for educational units and a Task Force for regional government.12

Under Regulation 46/2023, TPPK must be established by educational units referring to the following deadlines:13

  1. For PAUD and equality education units, shall be established no later than 3 August 2024;
  2. For elementary and secondary education units, as well as special education units, shall be established no later than 3 February 2024.
  • Members of TPPK

There are several provisions that regulated under the Regulation 46/2023, as summarized below:

  1. TPPK membership shall be odd in number and must consist of a minimum of 3 (three) individuals, comprises of representatives from educators who are not assigned as the heads of the education units, and school committee or representatives of parents/guardians;
  2. TPPK membership shall have never been proven to commit violence, subjected to a criminal sentence with a criminal threat of 5 (five) years or more, and/or has never been or currently undergoing any moderate or severe disciplinary punishment.
  • Duties and Responsibilities of TPPK

The TPPK members has the duty to implement the prevention and mitigation of violence within the educational units by carrying out several functions, such as:

  1. Proposing violence prevention programs to the head of educational units;
  2. Socialize policies and programs related to the prevention and mitigation of violence jointly with educational units;
  3. Receive and follow up on report of alleged violence;
  4. Assist the victim and/or reporting party of violence; etc.

Further, in carrying out the duties to prevent and mitigate of violence within the educational unit, TPPK shall have the authority to:

  1. Summon and request relevant parties for information;
  2. Coordinate with any relevant parties to support its duty; and
  3. Coordinate with other educational units in relation to its duties, when deemed necessary.

Educational Unit Violence Procedural Management

Under this regulation, the Ministry mandated that violence mitigation in educational units shall be conducted either by the educational unit itself through TPPK, the regional government through the Task Force, and/or through an independent working group of the Ministry.14 In implementing violence mitigation, both of the above units shall provide assistance in the form of the following:

  1. Counselling;
  2. Healthcare services;
  3. Legal assistance;
  4. Advocacy;
  5. Social and spiritual guidance; and/or
  6. Other assistance services.

The handling procedure of an act of violence in educational units shall be performed in 5 (five) stages, as summarized in the following chart:

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Footnotes

1 Article 3 of the Regulation 46/2023

2 Article 4 (1) of the Regulation 46/2023

3 Article 4 (2) of the Regulation 46/2023

4 Article 5 of the Regulation 46/2023

5 Article 7 of the Regulation 46/2023

6 Article 8 of the Regulation 46/2023

7 Article 9 of the Regulation 46/2023

8 Article 10 of the Regulation 46/2023

9 Article 11 of the Regulation 46/2023

10 Article 13 of the Regulation 46/2023

11 Article 24 of the Regulation 46/2023

12 Article 16 of the Regulation 46/2023

13 Article 79 of the Regulation 46/2023

14 Article 39 of the Regulation 46/2023

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.