Healthy life skills include the ability to recognize one’s own character, empathize with others, make the best choices, solve problems constructively, and think critically and creatively, as well as having good interpersonal skills, which include emotional and stress control. Essentially, adolescents must be psychologically and socially healthy.
However, it is saddening to hear about the recent cases of student violence in Bogor, West Java, and in Tegal, Central Java (Kompas, 15/3/2023; Kompas.id, 13/3/2023). Though these incidents do not reflect the general behavior of teenagers, we cannot help but ask: What is wrong with our youth? It is not the first time this has happened. Student brawls often occur, some leading to fatalities.
Also read:
> Youth Violence and Failure of Family Education
> All Violence Must Stop
Typically, the primary party at fault for the occurrence of student violence is the students’ educational institutions. Schools are deemed to have failed at educating their students and preventing such incidents from reoccurring. Schools sign an integrity pact and must close if they are found to have failed in educating their students.
On the other hand, the late Ki Hajar Dewantara believed that the pillar of education was not the school, but a student’s family and community. Above all, the state is responsible for creating an ecosystem in families, communities and schools that supports children’s education.
How will children pick up healthy life skills if good examples are not found in their surroundings, whether from their families, communities or schools?
Resolving this issue is the shared responsibility of all stakeholders. Student violence occurs not only when children are in school. It is a result of the education they receive from their families and society. Schools simply become an arena for violence if they fail to anticipate these incidents through building the character and developing its students. How will children pick up healthy life skills if good examples are not found in their surroundings, whether from their families, communities or schools?
Therefore, taking a legal approach to the perpetrators of student violence, such as by imposing sanctions in the form of suspensions or threats of blacklisting, will not be very effective as long as the student’s environment is not supportive. While it is true that perpetrators of student violence should be punished for their actions that are deemed criminal, this must also be accompanied by efforts to overcome the root cause of the deviant behavior.
Comprehensive efforts from relevant stakeholders are key to supporting young people in developing healthy life skills. This is the main requisite and a human development challenge. In the end, quality youth will determine the realization of the best human resources.
This article was translated by Kesya Adhalia.