October 23, 2025 | 05:46 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Abdu Mu'ti stated that the government will adopt a more cultural and humanistic approach in preventing students from smoking. This change in approach is made in response to the continued prevalence of students smoking, even within school premises.
Mu'ti believes that the current approach employed by the government is still too structural. "In such old regulations, we want to strengthen a more cultural and humanistic approach," he said at the Office of the Primary and Secondary Ministry in Jakarta, on Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
The structural approach mentioned by Mu'ti refers to the approach outlined in the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture Number 64 of 2015. In these regulations, the government prohibits anyone within school premises from smoking, selling cigarettes, or promoting cigarettes.
Mu'ti mentioned that the Ministry of Education and Culture is currently reviewing these regulations. The government plans to include all parties in implementing Regulation No. 64 of 2015 by the Minister of Education and Culture. "We will review and strengthen how everyone, not just officials, but also everyone, including student councils and students in general, is involved," Mu'ti stated.
Previously, the case of students smoking in Banten invoked public scrutiny. Approximately 630 students from 19 classes of SMAN 1 Cimarga staged a school strike on Monday, October 13, 2025, as a form of protest against the actions of the school principal who slapped a student caught smoking at school.
The case garnered both support and opposition among the public. The community and public figures were divided into two camps: those who supported the teacher's actions and those who condemned them. After a dispute, the issue between the teacher and the student was dropped from legal proceedings after both parties agreed to settle the matter within the family.
The Deputy Chair of Commission X of the House of Representatives (DPR), Lalu Hadrian Irfani, stated that the incident should serve as a lesson in enforcing rules within the school environment. Students smoking at school is clearly a violation.
However, Lalu also did not condone the school principal's response to slapping the student. "But the principal or the teacher also should not use any form of violence against their students," he said in a written statement on Thursday, October 16, 2025.
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