Discussion Text

Should Teenager Students Get a Private Vehicle?

It has been a trend in a big city that students use their own vehicle to go to their school. In Jakarta, 60% of students use their own vehicle (20% drive cars and 40% ride motorcycles). This phenomenon increases every year. As a result, accidents that are caused by teenagers also increase. Lately, there was an accident that is caused by a 13-year-old teenager which made 7 people die. This accident inspires the government to set the local regulation in Jakarta and other cities in Indonesia to forbid high school students to use a vehicle. Based on polling that was done by a TV local station, there are still pro and contra about this policy. Some parents are in the same line with the government while others feel hesitate about it. In this essay, there are advantages and disadvantages of getting a private vehicle of teenager students that is supported by parents’ reasons.

From many parents’ perspective, they assume that if they give a private vehicle to their children, it will save money because they do not need to spend their money to pay for public transportation. Taking public transportation like minibus needs to spend around Rp. 10.000,00 ($1) in a day for a student.  However, by using their own vehicle like a motorcycle, they only spend Rp. 25.000,00 ($2.5) for a week (based on my sister experience). Parents also think that by giving a private vehicle, their children will be easier to go to their school. They should not wait until public transportation come to pick them up. Therefore, it is one of the advantages. If students get a private vehicle, it will not take much money and time for them to come to their school and go back to their house.

The other reason why parents give a private vehicle to their children is that it can help them to go mobile because not all of parents can ride a motorcycle or drive a car. The children can drive or ride their parents to go to a place that their parents want. For example, when the parents want to go to the market, or other places, they can ask their children to give them a drive or a ride. Besides, having a private vehicle really helps them in emergency situation such as buying medicine for the member of their family who is sick, going to a place whose no public transportation to go there, or going somewhere at midnight for an urgent thing. So, parents who give a private vehicle to their children think it is really helpful for them.

On the other hand, many parents agree with government policy that forbids high school students to use a vehicle. They think that they should not give a private vehicle to their children because their children may forget about their obligation. Children may forget their homework, their house chores and others because they spend much time hanging out with their friends. By getting a private vehicle, they think they are free to go anywhere that they like.

In this daily life, according to my own experience, there are many students prefer to choose friends who have same background with them. If a student has his own vehicle like motorcycle, he prefers to choose friends that have motorcycle too. If he has a car, so he prefers to have friends who have cars. He just wants to spend his time with his friends that they think have same backgrounds with him. All of them avoid having a friend that does not have a motorcycle or a car. As a result, having a private vehicle will cause different social status among teens in their society.

The last and the biggest disadvantage of getting a private vehicle of teenager students is accident. The leader of World Health Organization (WHO) said accident is the third big killer in Indonesia. Many accidents that killed many people were caused by teens that drive a car or ride a motorcycle by themselves. Kak Seto, the leader of KPAI, said, “Teens who do not get license card yet should not drive a car or ride a motorcycle by themselves. They are still labile. By giving a private vehicle to them, it means we prepare them to be a killer.” In the other words, giving a private vehicle to teenager students is not good for their and also others’ safety.

In summary, there are advantages and disadvantages of getting private vehicle of teens. However, the advantages are not as many as the disadvantages. Giving a private vehicle to students can help them to go to some places that they need to go. We have to remind that it also has many disadvantages for teenager students like forget their obligation, cause social different status, and get an accident. I, personally, agree with government policy that forbids students to use a private vehicle because they do not get license card yet. It means they are not trained to drive a car or ride a motorcycle yet. Getting a private vehicle is really dangerous for teenager students’ and other people’s safety.