Schooling too early can actually damage children's health

The start time for teaching and learning activities in Indonesia is one of the earliest in the world. School children in DKI Jakarta, for example, are required to enter school at 6.30 am.

The school entry time which was judged to be too early was undoubtedly flooded with harsh criticism from various local educational institutions. Reporting from Okezone, the Jakarta Teacher Conference Forum (FMGJ) said that the early hours of school entry violated children's rights. Unless hours of study also increase the risk of indigestion because most school children do not have time to eat for a long time.

In addition, school entry patterns that force children to sleep late and wake up early can mess up the quality of their sleep. Not a few studies have proven that lack of sleep will have a negative impact on the physical and mental health of school children.

What is the impact if school children are sleep deprived?

School children need to learn as best they can. But there is one thing that is just as important but often overlooked: Sleep.

Sleep is one of the needs of children. Sleep supports brain processes that are essential for learning, memory preservation, and emotional regulation. At night, the brain reviews and amplifies the information it has acquired during the whole day. This makes the information they get in class during the day will be easier to remember at a later date.

Skipping sleep can be very dangerous. Over time, this "sleep late, wake up early" pattern can pose a number of health risks.

Sleep-deprived teens are also more likely to be inattentive, impulsive, hyperactive, and resisting, so it's no longer news that teens who don't get enough sleep don't stand out in academia and behavior. Sleep-deprived children are more likely to fall asleep in class during lessons.

In addition, lack of sleep is also associated with the risk of high cholesterol and obesity in the future. One study found that the short-term effects of sleep deprivation, such as colds, flu, and indigestion, were more frequent when children slept less than seven hours.

A study in the 2015 Journal of Youth and Adolescence, reported by the Huffington Post, found that teens who slept an average of six hours per night were reportedly three times more likely to suffer from depression. Lack of sleep also increases the risk of a child's suicide attempt by 58 percent.

One study found that if schoolchildren slept late by even 10 minutes, there was a 6 percent increased risk of them consuming alcohol or marijuana in the past month. Lack of sleep also increases the risk of school children becoming dependent on anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills. Later, the effects of the abuse of these drugs will make the child more anxious and have trouble sleeping.

When is the ideal time to enter school for school children?

Education observer Doni Koesoema, quoted from Berita Satu, assessed that the learning hours of Indonesian students are too long. In the 2013 Curriculum, on average, schoolchildren in Indonesia start school at 6.30 to 7 am, and finish at 15.00 WIB.

After school they may be preoccupied with a series of extracurricular activities, such as sports clubs or from a young age, taking lessons or courses, is it good for children's development? here and there, so they might come home late at night. Ironically, the scores shown by Indonesian children after spending more than 8 hours of non-stop learning are still proven to be lower than those of Singaporean students, who in fact only study 5 hours.

The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that every school should postpone hours of learning start time for children, especially adolescents, because of the better effect it has on their mental and physical health. So, when is the ideal time to enter school for school children when viewed from the duration of sleep?

Elementary School (ages 6-12 years)

The duration of sleep needed for elementary school age children (6-13 years) is around 9-11 hours per day. If a child's sleep time is equalized to 8 p.m., this means that they should wake up around 6.15-6.30 in the morning.

And taking into account the length of time the child gets ready (without having to rush or yell at by the parents) and breakfast, the entry time for elementary school children in Jakarta, which was at 6.30, should have been shifted to 7.30 in the morning. The same thing was stated by Retno Listyarti, Secretary General of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers' Unions (FSGI), quoted from Parenting.

Middle School (13-18 years)

Slightly different from elementary school children, the tendency of middle and high school students to sleep late is not due to the pile of homework but also due to hormonal fluctuations during puberty. The body's internal clock, called the circadian rhythm, in adolescents may shift slightly when they are pubescent, says Judith Owens, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children's Hospital. Shifting the body's circadian clock prevents the teenager's brain from starting to produce melatonin (the sleep hormone) until late at night.

In addition, teenagers have slower sleep drives than young children, meaning they can stay awake longer, even when they are sleep deprived. "It would be more difficult for them to fall asleep naturally under 11pm," said Owens. That's why delaying school start hours may make more sense and more effective than getting a child to sleep early.

Ideally, teenagers need approximately 9 hours of sleep per day. Some teens who are super active and busy all day in particular need 10 hours of restful sleep. Thus, if teenagers' sleep time is average to eleven o'clock in the evening, they should wake up around 8 in the morning.

And if you consider the length of time your child gets ready (without having to rush or yell at by parents) and breakfast, the ideal school entry time for junior high and high school students in Jakarta should start at 9 am.

According to Doni Koesoemo, the ideal school hours in Indonesia are 07.00 to 13.00, including rest time. That way, school children get five hours of learning every day.