Bandung schools on the web

BANDUNG, West Java: Twenty-two public high schools here have been hooked up to the Internet in a pioneering effort to establish a national educational network through the Internet.

"This proves that the idea to establish a national educational network has been enthusiastically welcomed, particularly by local junior and senior high schools," Sony Sugema, chairman of the Sony Sugema College which initiated the plan to establish such a network through the Internet, said Wednesday.

He said the on-line linking of these high schools marked the initial step taken by Bandung, the official site of the pilot project, toward materializing the plan.

As reported by Antara, an agreement was signed on April 15 between the provincial education and culture office here and the state-owned satellite communications company, Indosat, on the selection of Bandung as the site of the pilot project for the national educational network.

According to Sugema, the college hopes to establish an SS-Net Education Network, which will deal specially with the establishment of an educational network through the Internet for all educational institutions across Indonesia.