10 students pass 'test of genius'
Dyah Apsari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Ten students out of 120 freshmen from 16 state high schools in Greater Jakarta passed the first round of the selection process on Aug. 31 to find exceptional students for the newly established DKI Super Class.
All test participants were some of the 3,000 junior high school graduates who scored a perfect 10 in the final mathematics exam.
Jakarta Secondary and Higher Education Agency head Margani Mustar said on Sunday that the ten students were qualified to be interviewed as candidates of the special class.
"We held the interviews today (Sunday) and the results will be announced in few days ... some of them may not be in the class," he told The Jakarta Post.
Besides Margani, another interviewer was Yohanes Surya, a long-time trainer of international Science Olympiad candidates who had won gold medals.
The interview was aimed at exploring the students' personality and capability in articulating their thoughts.
"Although an IQ of 150 is one parameter, a cooperative personality, as well as communication ability, are other qualifications that are also important in deciding which students to sit in the super class," Margani added.
The so-termed DKI Super Class -- DKI is the acronym for Jakarta -- was initially scheduled to start in late August.
Co-founder Yohanes, who got the support of the city education agency and PT BMW Indonesia, intends to collect exceptional students who will get free education and the chance to be coached as international Science Olympiad candidates.
"I believe that if genius students have the opportunity to be trained equally to their competence, they will significantly develop their academic capacity ... and may well give a substantial contribution to Indonesian welfare and prosperity in the future," Yohanes said.
The class will be conducted at State High School No. 3 in Setiabudi, South Jakarta.
Due to lack of information to schools and parents about the program, only few students joined the first test, and the education agency was now trying to reach out to more participants to fill the quota of 24 seats in the super class.
"Another test will be held on Sept. 11 at the Pancasila University campus in Depok. Hopefully, more talented students will attend the second round of the selection process," Margani said.
The students will be asked to solve hundreds of problems to test their logical thinking, numerical and verbal capability as well as their level of concentration.