Bandung German School, a true survivor

By Yuli Sri Suwarni

BANDUNG (JP): It was about midday last Tuesday. Six children of between four and five were busy playing with sand at a four-by-four meter mud hole in front of building number 12.

A one-meter-high hedge shields them from the hectic traffic passing along Jl. Kyai Gede Utama, where the building is located.

At a glance, the building is just an ordinary house with a lawn in front. Next to the building is an iron swing painted in bright colors, wooden playground furniture, and a thick rope hanging from a tree.

On that afternoon, one little boy was seen trying a his best to swing by tightly clutching the rope.

Compared to the other big buildings on that block in the leafy suburbs of North Bandung, the house is nothing special.

But judging from the clay-made roof tile, it's obviously that the building is an aging one.

It is believed that the property once belonged to a Dutch family before it was converted to a boarding house for students and later a school in 1956.

With the family- and kids-friendly atmosphere, as was witnessed on that one Tuesday afternoon, many people, including locals, have no idea that the U-shaped building is a German school called the Deustche Schule Bandung (DSB).

Get closer to the children who are playing while waiting for their mums or drivers and you will hear them chatting in a mixture of Bahasa Indonesia and German.

Former glory

Established in January 1956, the DSB is believed to be among the first international schools, that is to say, a school for the children of expatriates and foreign diplomats, in this country.

Unfortunately, no details of its history are available.

A brief history was written in German in a year book published by the school six years ago.

Based on the information available, DSB principal Angela Tanudjaya revealed that the school was founded by a number of German nationals who were working in Bandung at that time.

One of the founders of the German School, Angela said, was Professor Holz, a former lecturer at Bandung's Padjajaran University.

The German families believed that they would only temporarily live in Indonesia and, so, wanted their children to study at a school which had a German curriculum, she explained.

"They didn't want their kids to face difficulties once they had to continue their studies in Germany. That's why they wanted to build a school which had an atmosphere and curriculum similar to those in their homeland," Angela told The Jakarta Post on that Tuesday.

According to Rita Widagdo, chairperson of Yayasan DSB, the foundation which now runs the school, many Germans were working in the pharmaceutical companies which had just opened their branches in Indonesia at the time.

They followed the Dutch who had made Bandung the center of their business activities. Like the Dutch, they picked Bandung mainly because of its fresh and cool climate.

At the beginning, Rita said, the school was located on Jl. Martadinata, which is now the site of the Goethe Institute while the building on Jl. Kyai Gede Utama was used as a boarding house for the students, whose parents -- mostly German, Austrian and Swiss -- had their offices outside Bandung, such as in Jakarta, Bogor and Karawang.

"Diplomats at the German Embassy in Jakarta also sent all their children to study here. The air in Jakarta was too hot and not good for their kids. In the old days, only a few houses were equipped with air conditioners and (Jakarta) had no so many trees as today," she explained.

"The fresh air of Bandung was very good for the children to study. Besides that, this school was famous for its quality ... There's no story that our students ever had problems in continuing their studies back in Germany," Rita went on.

Eight months after its establishment, the Indonesian government officially acknowledged the status of the school as a foundation.

In just a short time, educational life started to take of at the school. The German government assisted by subsidizing the school while school fees paid by the students' parents helped to cover the operational costs of the school.

The German tradition also began enlivening the school's activities. Every year, until today, the school celebrates at least three major German traditional events, Christmas, Carnival and Oktoberfest (the October festival).

During Oktoberfest, for example, the students, and the teachers as well, performed a series of dances and served up traditional German food.

"It was really alive. Every year, we had SMP (junior high school) graduates. A representative from the German education ministry came especially to Indonesia just to give approval to the examination certificates, with someone from the embassy coming along as a witness," Rita said, referring to the golden days of the DSB.

Some teachers were flown in from Germany, while others included German nationals who lived in bandung and had teaching qualifications.

Rita, who like Angela is a German national married to an Indonesian, taught drawing at the DSB for one year in 1966. At that time, the school had 35 students studying in three different grades, namely kindergarten, grundschule (elementary school) and sekundarstufe I (high school).

The golden era of the Deustche Schule Bandung lasted only for 10 years, and in 1966 the German Embassy decided to move the school to the capital Jakarta fro one major reason: many big companies had opened their offices there.

"Bandung was apparently suitable only for studying and lifestyle, but was not profitable for business-oriented activities," Rita recalled.

At first, parents of all the 35 students disagreed with the plan. But the Embassy refused to listen to their pleas. In October 1967, the Embassy opened a new German school in Jakarta.

Instead of closing down, the Bandung school continued going. In July 1968, the school still managed to witness the graduation of 22 students.

For unclear reasons, two months later the German government stopped giving a subsidy to the DSB and allocated it instead to the new school in Jakarta. All of the teachers were brought to Jakarta. Then a traumatic event took place on the history of the DSB: It was temporarily closed!

"Honestly, we were hurt because the number of students dropped drastically," said Rita, a lecturer in the School of Arts and Design at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

The boarding school was also closed.

At the request of German families still living in Bandung and with the help of nuns volunteering as teachers, the school opened up shop again in October 1969 with only 12 students.

For efficiency's sake, the school was moved to the boarding school premises, while the building on Jl. Martadinata was handed over to the Goethe Institute.

According to Angela, those were difficult days as the school was heavily dependent on school fees to cover its costs while the number of students was relatively low.

In 1972, she recalled, the school only had one class and one teacher.

"Our foundation had to be smart enough to put aside part of the school fees. That's how we were able to survive," said Angela.

The foundation, for instance, reduced the number of teachers when the money began to dry up, she said.

Obviously, the school's lean days are not yet over.

"This semester alone, two of our teachers have flown back to their homelands due to the low number of classes. We have no choice but to handle the cash carefully," Angela said.

But the school, she added, insisted on maintaining its quality.

"There must be no subjects neglected from the German set curriculum. Every year, we upgrade our books, which we order directly from Germany, of course, through sea cargo for cost- saving reasons," she continued.

Actually, the German government still maintains contacts with the school and sometimes donates books.

The school itself often raises funds for the purchase of school equipment through its Oktoberfest.

In general, the school is trying hard to survive. The curriculum employs the standards set by the German state of Nordrhien-Westfalen. All subjects are taught in German. Bahasa Indonesia is given to students starting from Grade 3, English from kindergarten and French from Grade 5.

In accordance with government regulations, the school limits the number of local students to only 20 children.

"Most of the students here are being prepared by their parents to continue their studies later in Germany, which offers a high quality and free education," Rita said.

The DSB has changed its logo many times. Once, it used Semar (chief of the servants of Pandawas in the Wayang story) before it picked up popular German cartoon characters Max and Moritz. Now it has two lizards along with the German and Indonesian flags as its logo.

The small number of students attending the DSB is viewed in different ways by the students.

Denny A., a Grade 5 student in 1995, once wrote in the school book: "It's better to have a small class because we can directly talk after we put our hand up."

But Angela worries that classes with a small number of students, which have become a new trend in many private schools, will lead to the children being unable to socialize properly.

To avoid this problem, the DSB regularly invites other international schools in Bandung to take part in DSB activities, such as sports and cookery competitions.

Like many other teachers in and operators of international schools, Rita, Angela and the other DSB teachers hope that Indonesia, politically and economically, will recover soon in order to lure more foreign investors to the country.